


Of Myth & Ruin

by obiwankenoobi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game), The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Action & Romance, Angst, Eventual Romance, Eventual Sex, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, LGBTQ Character, M/M, Major Original Character(s), POV Third Person, Platonic Relationships, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:55:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29170701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obiwankenoobi/pseuds/obiwankenoobi
Summary: Captured by the Empire, Din Djarin has lost his freedom, the dark saber, and most importantly, his son. But when he crosses paths with a New Republic Captain and Jedi duo, he's given a second chance to find out all he can about the Jedi, and perhaps, reunite with Grogu.A reluctant guide for the Mandalorian, Jedi Luna Apalo is determined to return to Bogano--her master hasn't come back from a mission for weeks and she's starting to get worried. Captain Mathis Hao just wants his friend to stay by his side--and to not be murdered by imps while watching her back.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 18





	1. The Enemy of My Enemy

**Author's Note:**

> Story Begins End of Season 2 of The Mandalorian
> 
> After Luke Skywalker takes Jedi youngling Grogu under his wing, Moff Gideon’s ship is overrun by enemy forces, allowing the commander to escape. In the chaos, Din Djarin and the dark saber are captured by the Empire, but his friends vow to return and rescue him as they flee on Boba Fett’s ship. Cara Dune is called back to Nevarro by the New Republic and Bo-Katan goes after Moff Gideon on her own, leaving Boba and Fennec to take on the rescue mission. At the same time, New Republic Captain Mathis Hao and Jedi Luna Apalo are on a very different mission.

“Luna, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Quiet, Mathis. You already bailed on plans A and B, time to settle for plan C, like you promised. Hand me the data core.”

The New Republic captain sighed and placed the last core in his friend’s outstretched hand, watching her stuff it into her satchel. They peered around the supply crates from their hidden position on the TIE Fighter hangar floor, eyeing the guarded entry point ahead. Two stormtroopers stood at attention flanking the entrance, their shadows from the dim lighting stretching across the floor in front of the two, looming large.

“Only because I thought you wouldn’t have that many backup plans. My mistake. And one I won’t be making again since we're going to die,” he whispered back, his Corusanti accent dripping with malice. Luna pulled her imperial officer hat down on her head, burying her dark brown hair under the grey material. The uniform was a tight fit, but she hoped the troopers would be more focused on the high ranking emblems pinned to her chest than the fact that her pants were too short.

“Don’t worry so much, Captain.”

Luna raised her hand, closed her eyes, and focused on the light above the doorway between the two troopers. The light glowed brighter and brighter until the troopers raised their helmets in confusion, looking away from the hanger. Mathis and Luna stepped out from behind the crates and marched toward the troopers, spines straight. The light dimmed.

“Admiral,” the troopers said in unison, standing at attention, no longer transfixed by the light. Luna only nodded and the door between them slid open. Mathis, who was dressed in a stormtrooper uniform at her side, saluted the two soldiers awkwardly. The two kept a steady pace as they entered the main hull of the cruiser, walking in the memorized pattern of the map they’d received from reconnaissance missions before them. New Republic spies had died to get them those maps. But Luna would make sure their deaths weren’t in vain. If successful, the results of this mission could mean snuffing out what was left of the Empire for good.

After navigating a maze of hallways and fake saluting passing officers and droids, they stepped into an elevator, and Luna finally let out all the air she’d been holding in. Mathis’ stormtrooper helmet turned in her direction, somehow mockingly.

“Nervous? You’ve been on tons of these kinds of missions,” he said, looking her up and down. Luna watched as the lights flashed and faded in the crack of the elevator doors as they sank deeper into the ship. A chill seemed to permeate the walls around them and she shifted from one foot to another to keep her muscles warm. Ready for a fight.

“Let’s just get what we came for and get out,” she said. “I have to get back to my master.”

“Back to Bogano? Really? You know there’s nothing there for you, Luna.”

“We are not having this conversation right now,” she said, shoving his shoulder with hers. The captain shoved her back, but surrendered the fight for now.

The elevator finally slowed to a halt, and when the doors slid open, Luna stepped out in front of Mathis, her hands behind her back as she walked confidently through the center of the control room. The troopers and officers stationed along the center computer panels and those along the perimeter stood at attention at the mere sight of her rank.

“I need this room cleared, immediately,” she said loudly, pausing by a computer panel. The nearest officer furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to challenge her, but Luna stared him down.

“In moments I will be receiving a classified transmission from Moff Gideon on this deck. When I say clear the room, I mean clear the room now, officer,” she said, narrowing her eyes. The officer paled and nodded, turning to the troopers and signaling for the doors. They flowed into the three elevators, packing themselves in, and in moments, the room was empty. Mathis ripped the helmet from his head and took a deep breath, his curly black hair already matted against his face with sweat.

“Couldn’t see anything in this damn helmet. I wasn’t sure if we were in trouble or not. Can we have a go-word for next time so I can just start blasting?” he asked, sitting at the nearest computer. Luna handed him the small, cylindrical data cores from her satchel and watched as he keyed into the system before plugging each core into the computer. The monitor in front of them went dark before beginning to upload mission data and the ship’s travel logs.

“What about ‘demoted’? That’s got a nice ring to it,” she teased. Mathis rolled his eyes at her, a smile gracing his lips. Luna crossed to the other side of the room to study the security cameras, making sure no one would disrupt them.

“Low blow. What about ‘trash chute’? Brings up fond memories, doesn’t it?” he said. Luna glared at him before returning her gaze to the monitors. She had a temper, so what? Everyone has their vices. But you throw a diplomat into a trash chute one time...

“What about…” she searched her mind for a real code word, but was soon distracted. The security footage had switched from the hallways around the control room to show a cell block of the ship, the feed jumping from cell to cell. Most were empty. But one was certainly not. A man dressed in silver Mandalorian armor, pure beskar from the looks of it, was pacing back and forth in the small cell, stopping every so often to peek out of the small section of bars on the door.

“A Mandalorian?” she thought aloud. Why would the Empire be wasting its little resources on capturing a Mandalorian right now? Mathis swiveled in his chair to face her, raising a brow.

“That’s a weird code word.”

“No, I mean there’s a Mandalorian on this ship. He’s being held in a cell block-”

The room darkened as red lights lining the ceiling began to flash, along with a piercing siren interrupting her. Across the room, the lights above the elevator began to glow. Luna switched the feed back to the upper floors and watched as troopers piled into the three elevators.

“Did we trip a silent alarm?” she yelled over the siren, crossing the room to cover him. Mathis began ripping the data cores from the computer and shoving them back in her satchel.

“Not sure, but we got what we came for--time to leave!” he yelled back, his voice suddenly modulated as he shoved the stormtrooper helmet back on his head. Suddenly, the two were thrown from their feet and into the nearest wall, an explosion racking the right side of the ship. Luna’s hand flew to the lightsaber in her bag, her hand tightening around the hilt as she groaned and pulled herself back to her feet. She stumbled back to the security cameras and switched the feed. Their backup backup plan--the escape pods--were in flames.

“The ship’s under attack, we gotta move now!”

Mathis grabbed her arm and dragged her down a hallway off the control room, breaking into a sprint. Luna struggled to see through the smoke and blinking red lights, following only the flashes of his white trooper armor in the dark. They had the ship’s data, now all they needed was to find a new way off the ship. Mathis was a damn good pilot, but hijacking and then flying a patrol ship? A TIE fighter? But as she weighed their options, her mind clung to the prisoner. Why was an imperial cruiser holding a Mandalorian prisoner? What if he held vital information on the New Republic? What if he was just...one of the good guys?

“We can’t leave him!” Luna yelled, pausing in the middle of a hallway. Mathis spun around to face her, throwing his hands up.

“What are you talking about? We have to go, Luna! We cannot fuck this up like Yavin 9.”

They froze as a squad of troopers sprinted past them and then disappeared, heading to the control room they’d just left. Luna stared down the captain, challenging him to stop her, and pulled her saber free from her bag.

“Trust me, Mathis. Nothing could ever be as bad as Yavin 9.”

* * *

As the ship shook around them, fire and smoke seeping into every corridor, Luna and Mathis turned the corner and sprinted into Cell Block C2. By now the siren had ceased, but the red lights continued to flash inside the cruiser, draping their enemies in darkness every few seconds. Four stormtroopers stood guarding the cells on either side of the room, with a single officer busy barking orders into an intercom by the elevators, his back facing them. Mathis slowed his pacing, assessing the situation, but Luna sped up, making her way to the Mandalorian’s cell. She pressed the sheathed saber against the small of her back behind her.

“Admiral?” one of the guarding troopers asked in confusion. Luna nodded once at him and his partner, her eyes darting between the two helmets. She lifted her hand and slowly passed it over their helmets, speaking calmly.

“You will open this cell and then fire upon your commanding officer,” she said, her voice steady, and nodded to the officer near the elevators. The Mandalorian’s helmet appeared in the small barred opening of his cell, silently watching. The two troopers looked at one another, then back at Luna.

“We’ll do what?” the trooper on her right asked, slowly raising his blaster.

“You will open this cell and then fire upon your commanding officer?” she repeated, but this time, it sounded more like more a question as her pulse quickened with fear. Just as the trooper wrapped his finger around the trigger, Mathis blasted a hole in his helmet, and the trooper’s body smacked against the floor with a thud. Luna ignited her saber and slashed the throat of the other trooper, the orange glow of her weapon bouncing off the cell block’s walls.

“Did you really think that was going to work?” Mathis hissed, shooting at the now-alerted other guards and ducking behind a control panel. Luna turned to see the commanding officer sprinting toward her, blaster raised. She force pushed him back into the elevator doors, the crash of his skull hitting metal echoing around the room.

“Fuck you, I’ve been practicing!” she yelled back, her cheeks burning. Mathis was able to take out two more troopers with his blaster and Luna used the force to slam two troopers into one another, their bodies hitting the floor simultaneously. Mathis aimed his next shot at the locking mechanism of the Mandalorian’s cell.

“Here’s to hoping he’s a good guy,” the captain said. The panel exploded and the cell doors slid open. From the darkness, the Mandalorian warrior silently emerged, his beskar glinting under the flashing red lights. With a menacing energy surrounding him, a metal rope shot out of his wrist and wrapped around a trooper’s leg from across the room. He dragged his prey across the floor in three swift pulls and punched his helmet until the trooper’s body went slack against the ground.

“Wow,” Luna breathed at the same moment Mathis exclaimed “Fuck, man.”

The Mandalorian’s helmet turned toward the two, sending chills down their spines. But out of the corner of her eye, Luna spotted the last trooper left standing, raising his blaster behind the armored man.

She raised her hand quickly, dragging the trooper to her in the air by his throat, his feet sliding against the grated floor until he met the hilt of her ignited saber, piercing through his abdomen. As the trooper slumped to the ground at her feet, a moment of silence passed between the three strangers, the only sounds being the whine of crunching metal and distant explosions that were echoing inside the ship’s walls.

“Who are you?” Mando asked, his baritone voice fuzzy from the modulation in his helmet. Luna glanced at Mathis beside her, who had now discarded his trooper helmet on the floor, probably to avoid a mistaken death-by-beating from the stranger. He cleared his throat and stood a little straighter.

“I am Captain Mathis Hao of the New Republic Army, and this is Jedi Knight Luna Apalo.”

“Jedi?” Mando pressed, taking a large step toward Luna. She, in turn, took a large step back, putting an arm out to protect the captain.

“Was the lightsaber and tossing troopers like womp rats not enough?” Mathis asked, squinting at him in confusion. Before the Mandalorian could reply, the ship lurched beneath them and they struggled to stay upright, grabbing onto the walls and computer stations nearby.

“Long story short, do you want to get off this ship with us or not?” Mathis said quickly, skipping over the details of their mission. It was probably for the best--just because the Mandalorian clearly hated imps didn’t mean he wasn’t an enemy of the New Republic. They could sort out the details later. The enemy of my enemy is my friend or something like that. For now, they just had to survive.

“Follow me,” the man said, walking past them swiftly. Mathis looked to Luna, his face scrunched up in a mix of confusion and awe like, _How is this a real person?_ But she could only shrug.

“You heard the man,” she said, taking off after him.

“Just to be clear, I outrank you both,” Mathis muttered, jogging to catch up. The captain and the Jedi ran after the masked stranger, putting their lives in his hands.

* * *

“I can’t believe we’re on plan D. Is there anything after this?” Mathis panted as he ran beside Luna. The two were trailing the Mandalorian as he choked out, beat, and pummeled any trooper who dared cross their path as they navigated the cruiser. They struggled to both keep up with his pace and avoid tripping over the bodies he left in his wake. Luna was terrified they’d let out a monster.

“Death,” she replied to Mathis absently, ripping the imperial officer hat from her head and tossing it aside. Her long brown hair whipped free behind her as she cut down an oncoming trooper and tossed another against a wall.

“This way,” Mando said suddenly, making a sharp right turn. The three stumbled into a storage hangar, filled with weapons crates, uniforms, and medical supplies, but no troopers. The Mandalorian crossed the room and pressed a gloved hand against the large window; together, they paused to watch as chunks of the cruiser were breaking off into space before them. In the distance, a ship was darting toward and away from the cruiser, blasting its cannons relentlessly.

“That’s my friend out there. He can pick us up, but....it’s going to be tricky. How long can you hold your breath?” Mando asked, turning to look at them. Mathis looked horrified, glancing from his t-visor stare to the window.

“You’re not serious. Is he serious?” he asked, looking at Luna. The Jedi was already taking deep breaths, gauging her lung capacity and focusing on the force, and the captain groaned.

“She’s going to make me do it,” he told the Mandalorian, but the man was unsympathetic to his cause, holding out his hand to the captain. Mathis handed over his blaster. Luna grabbed her friend’s gloved hand and squeezed twice, _We can do this_. Was the Mandalorian insane? Yes. Did they have another way off the ship? Luna distinctly remembered seeing the escape pods in flames on the security camera feed, and who knew about the rest of the ships in the hangar now that entire pieces of the cruiser were being jettisoned into space.

“I’ll protect us, Mathis. With the force, I mean,” she promised. She’d been training for this. Well, not this specifically, but manipulating the force to her will, shielding people with it--she could do this. Mathis closed his eyes and took a deep breath, in through his nose, then out through his mouth. He squeezed her hand back, _Please don’t kill us._

“Just break the glass already,” he said quietly. Luna pulled Mathis to stand with her beside the Mandalorian. He raised the commlink on his wrist to his helmet.

“Fett? I’m in position. Get as close as you can,” he said. He raised the blaster to the glass with one hand and then offered his other to Luna. It almost made her laugh--a gentleman, even in possible death. She gripped his glove hard, but not nearly as hard as Mathis was holding her other hand, already numb from the pressure.

“Hold on tight, Jedi,” he said.

In seconds the glass hull of the storage hanger had shattered, blasting them into the vacuum of space. Luna shrouded their forms, putting the force between them and the cold, the pressure, the void just long enough for Mando’s ship to open its main hatch and suck them in. The three landed hard on the metal floor, skidding into the walls as the ship promptly jumped to hyperspace. The absence of the sounds of explosions, sirens, and chunks of Empire cruiser being obliterated left the hull of the ship feeling empty and disturbingly silent. Luna rose first, stumbling to the groaning captain’s side on the ground and supporting his head with her hand.

“Mathis, are you okay? You can open your eyes now,” she said. The captain opened his eyes slowly before sitting up and promptly vomiting on the floor. He sank back to the ground, his face flushed. Panic and shame swelled inside of her; had she not been focusing enough?

“Boba’s not going to like that,” a female voice sighed. Luna’s head snapped to the nearest doorway and her body froze, the sights of the woman’s sniper rifle trained on her head. Boba? As in...

“Wait Fennec, stop! They’re not Empire, they helped me escape!” Mando yelled, jumping between Luna and the sniper, Fennec. His raised hands did nothing to make Fennec lower her weapon; she was eyeing Luna’s imperial uniform, her pinned admiral ranking.

“Not going to like what?” a different modulated voice asked. Behind the sniper, another Mandalorian with green and red armor appeared, climbing down from the cockpit. Luna’s mouth went dry as the details clicked together in her mind. ‘Fett’ on the commlink call. Now ‘Boba.’ The man before them was Boba Fett, the infamous bounty hunter who worked for the Empire. The man she’d seen all those years ago on Bespin. She tried not to let the revelation hit her face, turning back to Mathis, and maybe more importantly, her satchel that had been thrown against the wall. She would not compromise their mission. Or let the data they’d collected fall into the wrong hands.

“Do you have a medkit on board? He needs medicine, now,” she said, glancing between Boba and Mathis. The sniper, bounty hunter, and Mandalorian promptly ignored her.

“Lower your weapon,” Mando growled, taking a step toward the sniper, but she held firm until Boba put a hand on her shoulder, and slowly, the rifle lowered. He stepped past her and the two Mandalorians exchanged a firm nod in greeting.

“If you’re not Empire, then who are you?” the bounty hunter asked, standing over the Jedi and the captain. Mathis’ eyes fluttered as he sank in and out of consciousness, speeding up Luna’s pulse.

“I don’t have time to be interrogated,” Luna said, standing up, and the three strangers tensed, hands hovering over blasters.

“My friend needs a medkit or he’s going to die. Do you have one on board or not?”

“You’ve got to make time, princess,” Boba growled, shoving her back so she stumbled into the wall.

“Fett, you don’t wanna do that-” Mando said, stepping forward to intervene, but Boba raised a hand, stopping him. His helmet turned back to Luna as he stepped over Mathis and pinned her to the wall with a gloved hand on her shoulder. Her knuckles were white with fury, but she could hear her master’s voice in her head, begging patience. She took a deep breath.

“How can you prove you’re not with them? Not a spy?” he asked.

“We’re with the New Republic. Our ship was captured in a tractor beam, but we managed to sneak on the cruiser undetected and acquire these uniforms. In a control room, we saw that a Mandalorian was in one of the holding cells and decided we’d need help getting off the ship,” she said. The bounty hunter’s helmet offered no reaction, but his hand pressed her shoulder harder in the wall.

“You’re going to have to do a lot better than that, little one.”

“How about I just chop your fucking arm off?” Luna countered, igniting the orange saber at her side. Boba Fett stumbled back as she held the weapon to his throat and pursued him as they crossed the room until he was the one pinned against the wall. She felt Fennec about to shoot and force pushed her back through the doorway, then swiped her hand in the air to slide the door shut and hold it there, even as the sniper began banging on the metal with her fists.

“Din, did you bring a Jedi onto my ship?” Boba snapped, looking at his friend. The Mandalorian, apparently Din, approached them slowly, hands raised again, ever the negotiator.

“Luna Apalo— we’re on the same side. My son, he’s like you. He has...abilities. Just put the sword down and we can talk,” Din said, his voice softer than before. Luna looked from the shaking door to Din, to Boba, then to Mathis, unconscious on the floor behind her. The mission had to wait--Mathis needed her. And she needed these strangers, for now.

“I promise you’re safe here,” Din said, breaking her train of thought. She studied his helmet, his body language— his head was tilted down, submissive, his hands were outstretched and open-palmed, passive. The Mandalorian seemed genuine.

“Save my friend and I’ll tell you whatever you need to know,” Luna said, and Din nodded. She felt Boba relax against the wall, so she pressed her saber closer, singeing the hairs on his neck.

“But keep this bounty hunter away from me, or I’ll be delivering his head to the highest bidder,” she said, then sheathed her saber. Boba Fett reached a gloved hand up to feel his neck, then let out a laugh, startling her. With Luna’s focus lost, the door slid open once again, revealing the furious black-haired sniper.

“Are we killing them or not?” she asked, raising her weapon.

“They live for now,” Boba said, stepping toward Luna to tower over her, establish his authority once more. The saber itched in her hands, begging for blood, but she breathed deeply. Patience.

“You have no idea who you’re messing with, girl.”


	2. The Girl From Bespin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heavy character development ahead. Who is this Luna Apalo girl, anyway? Action & fluff in the next chapter. Review replies at end. Enjoy!

Luna sat by the cot where Mathis lay and leaned her forehead against the cold metal wall, wishing that the sleeping quarters had windows. Even if all she could see were the light blue streaks of hyperspace, she wanted confirmation that she wasn’t trapped, that there was a universe out there she could reach easily if she needed to, that there was somewhere for them to crash if she needed to fight her way off this ship.

Din appeared in the doorway carrying a small black case and Luna stood quickly. He hesitated on entering.

“Sorry. It’s the medkit,” he explained, and Luna felt relief for the first time all day. She waved him over.

“Well, come on then,” she said. Din joined her beside the cot and opened the case, handing her a full injection of bacta solution. She pulled the protective plastic off the top of the needle with her teeth and jabbed it in Mathis’ arm. The captain’s face melted from strained to relaxed, his breathing steadying. Luna pushed his black curls from his eyes and sighed, leaning back against the wall.

“Thank you,” she said, looking back to Din, but he had already moved back to the edge of the room, standing silently at the foot of the cot. She studied his helmet—it was odd not to be able to know exactly where he was looking, what his expression was, or what he was thinking behind the mask. But now that Mathis was alive and well, it was time to get down to business.

“Where is this ship headed?” she asked.

“What were you really doing on that cruiser?” he countered.

He took a seat on a crate by the doorway, blocking any possible escape. It seemed like she wouldn’t have to guess what he was thinking after all--the Mandalorian was already starting to pick apart her story. Luna nudged the satchel so that it was concealed behind her legs. She would just have to lie. Or better yet, evade.

“I need to know where this ship is headed. I have to get to Bogano right away,” she said, holding firm.

“What did the republic want from that cruiser? Is it on one of these?” Din held up a data core and Luna’s body tensed. When did he have the time to swipe that? She started to try to think of ways to explain the hard drive, but her mind was coming up blank. Oddly shaped grenades? Training weights?

“It is vital that I get back to Bogano,” she repeated, looking anywhere but his eyeline.

“You’re bad at lying,” he said and she scoffed at his bluntness. _The nerve of this man_. There was silence for a moment, then, mercifully, Din took the bait.

“Why Bogano?” he asked, tossing the precious data core from one hand to another. Her eyes followed the device. This man knew exactly what he was doing.

“Jedi business,” she replied shortly. She felt Mathis begin to stir next to her in the cot and she glanced down at him. He always said Jedi business meant moving rocks for days on end. _Call me when you move a mountain_. He wasn’t far off, to be honest. Din stopped tossing the core.

“Is that where you’re from? Is that where Jedi come from?”

She looked back to Din, hearing that softness in his voice again, like when he spoke to her in the storage hangar. _Hold on tight, Jedi_. And then the cargo bay. _I promise you’re safe here_. This Mandalorian has a soft spot for Jedi. Well, of course he does. _My son, he’s like you._

“You want to know more about your son,” she said and he shifted in his seat, crossing his arms--protecting himself. Luna wondered where his son was, if he’d been taken. Is that why he wanted to know more about the data cores? To see prisoner lists of other ships? An execution log? Or was he playing her and working with Boba Fett to deliver Jedi and New Republic spies to the Empire or other bidders? Then again, why would he have been in their custody if that were true?

Luna stared hard at the Mandalorian and he, probably, stared back. Could she trust him? He clearly didn’t trust her, and trust goes both ways. _Trust only in the force, Luna._ Going to need more advice than that, master.

But Luna didn’t have time to trust or not trust people right now. All that mattered was getting the cores to the New Republic and then returning to Bogano, whether it was on a republic cruiser or Boba Fett’s Slave I. She would take what she could get, even if she had to be a tour guide for a Mandalorian with a supposed Jedi son.

“Come with us to Bogano,” she said suddenly. “I can show you the ways of the Jedi. Teach you what history I know. And there you can meet others of my kind.”

“Is it that...allowed?” he asked, leaning forward, and she had to hold back a laugh. It was strange to see a man of his caliber, who’d killed dozens of troopers with just his hands in mere minutes, ask someone for permission to go anywhere.

“The only thing I ask for in exchange is our data cores and your full discretion,” she said. He thought for a moment, rolling the object from one hand to the other. Without warning, he tossed it onto the cot where it hit Mathis in the stomach.

“Maker!” he moaned, clutching his abdomen.

“Stop pretending to be asleep,” the Mandalorian said, and Luna went from being surprised to laughing, really cackling, as Mathis glared up at her. The clever captain, eavesdropping for intel. Luna had to admit, it was a good try. But the Mandalorian was always watching.

Around them, the ship shook for a moment before stilling, and Luna stopped laughing, her hand flying to the saber on her belt. They’d dropped out of hyperspace.

“We’ll go to Bogano,” Din decided, rising from the crate. “But first, we need to make a pit stop.”

* * *

A strong gust of wind pelted Mathis’ eyes, ears, and mouth with volcanic ash, sending him into another coughing fit.

“This is the worst I’ve ever felt,” he declared and Luna rolled her eyes, dragging him by the arm to keep up with the Mandalorian. They were both stripped down to their under armor--tight black long-sleeve shirts and tactical pants with black standard-issue imperial boots--they’d had to toss their stolen uniforms after landing or else risk being shot to death by locals. Not wanting to be barefoot, they were both praying no one could identify the model of their footwear. But that was the least of their worries--the duo currently had hefty bounties on their heads for those who still took imperial credits.

“Why did it have to be Nevarro? The Mandalorians are just going to turn us in. We’re going to be killed by bounty hunters and strung up in the marketplace like braised scyk belly the second we step foot into the city,” he said. Luna felt her stomach clench, imagining the platter. When was the last time they ate?

“That sounds good,” she and Boba said in unison. She glanced back at the bounty hunter who insisted on trailing behind them. He’d even ordered Fennec to stay with the ship, in case they broke away and tried to steal it. The two Mandalorians seemed close, perhaps bonded by their backgrounds? Their criminal activity together? It didn’t matter--as long as Luna and Mathis were around Din, Boba was there to protect him.

“Watch where you’re going, little one,” Boba said, nodding his helmet at her. She begrudgingly faced forward as they began to enter the city.

“What’s with the pet names? Does he know you’re not a youngling?” Mathis muttered and Luna shoved him with her shoulder.

“What’re you, an idiot? Welcome to being a woman.”

In all honesty, she wasn’t sure if the hunter was flirting with her or belittling her. Perhaps it was a mix of both. Either way, she was always up for a good fight, that is, if the old man still had it in him.

Din’s beskar armor glinting in the sun was their only guide as he marched quickly ahead of them. He weaved in and out of the crowds like a true bounty hunter, his strides measured, his body never brushing into another soul, no trace of himself left behind. Meanwhile, Nevarro was not what the captain and the Jedi remembered from past trips. Strangely, the roadsides of the city were booming with life.

Yes, there were still some bounty hunters milling about, but also, a thriving marketplace full of citizens bargaining, laughing, eating, and some even dancing. Luna longed to stay and mingle, but Mathis kept her on-task, prodding her forward each time they passed a food or clothing stand. But while trying to sniff an array of Fringi spice cakes, Luna bumped into a blue Twi’lek and his friend, a rather tall and scary looking green-scaled Trandoshan.

“Watch it,” the Trandoshan hissed, and the Twi-lek began to size her up, licking his lips.

“You watch it,” she said back, almost automatically. Mathis dragged her away from the two hunters, apologizing under his breath.

They jogged ahead and finally caught up with Din in a nearby building, and in seconds, they understood why Nevarro was thriving. A New Republic Marshal badge glinted on a desk to their right, with shock trooper Carasynthia Dune sitting behind it. Luna instantly recognized the soldier from holographic messages sent to the New Republic base on Chandrila.

Cara locked eyes with Din’s helmet first, jumping up to hug him so hard his feet lifted off of the ground. From a hallway in the back, Luna spotted a male Mythrol coming to greet them and waved, but then his eyes seemed to land on Din as well and he did a complete 180, sprinting right back down the hallway.

“I knew you’d make it out alive, you bastard,” Cara grinned, dropping Din back onto his feet. He held his side, probably bruised from the encounter, but seemed happy from his body language to see the marshal.

“I only wish I could’ve been there myself to see you rip their ship in two, but things were getting bad here without me.”

“I wasn’t alone. I had help,” he explained, and stepped aside to reveal Luna, Mathis, and Boba behind him. To everyone’s surprise, Cara’s eyes lit up at the sight of Mathis and she rushed forward to grab him in a tight hug too, and then slap him on the back roughly. Luna definitely heard bones cracking.

“Good to see you too...Cara…” Mathis coughed and Cara laughed, ruffling his black curls. Luna looked from Din to the marshal--at least they had solid proof they were with the New Republic now. Or at least, that Mathis was.

“You two...know each other?” Din asked and Cara nodded, her smile fading.

“He was still a soldier-in-training during my shock trooper days. Just a kid, really. Not that he’s that much bigger now,” she said, and Mathis scoffed. Luna couldn’t help but smile; it was rare to see someone fawn over the captain.

“I hear they’re calling you captain these days, is that right? Finally get the action you’ve been looking for?” she asked, nudging him with her elbow. He cleared his throat and seemed to puff out his chest, trying to make himself look bigger.

“That’s an affirmative, Marshal Dune,” he replied, and motioned for Luna to hand him the satchel. She shrugged the bag off and handed it straight to Cara instead, just to irk him. She took out one of the cores, studying it, and Luna could feel Boba eyeing it from behind her, a burning reminder that she had to continue to protect the data.

“We need to transmit this data to New Republic High Command, as soon as possible,” she said, and Cara looked at her as if just noticing she existed for the first time.

“And who might you be?” she asked. Mathis shot Luna a firm look. _Don’t you dare make me look bad._

“Luna Apalo. I’m a friend of Captain Hao’s,” Luna said. It was best to never give up more information than you have to--you never know who’s listening. She could already feel something off around them, some kind of disturbance, but couldn't’ quite place the feeling--Mathis affectionately called them her _danger tingles_. But Din clearly had other plans.

“She’s a Jedi,” Din volunteered and Luna shot him a look. Cara looked back at her friend, her face suddenly serious.

“Like the kid?” she asked and Din nodded, his head hanging a little lower. Luna suddenly felt guilty for having doubted him--the Mandalorian clearly wasn’t lying about the Jedi son.

“Even with the...you know?” Cara said, waving three fingers on her right hand around vaguely, and Din nodded knowingly. Luna and Mathis exchanged a confused look.

“The force?” Mathis offered, but he was met with silence. As much as she loved charades, Luna could feel her stomach turning against itself, suddenly ravenous. Potential _danger tingles_ aside, she needed fuel before their trip back to Bogano.

“Anyway,” Luna began, stepping back toward the doorway, “I am starving. I’ll catch up with you guys later. You got this, right Captain Hao?”

Without waiting for a reply, Luna turned around, heading back into the marketplace. She was determined to let her nose lead her to sustenance--she could still smell all the wonderful foods they’d passed on the way in. But Boba stepped to block her path, placing himself between a hungry Jedi and her next meal--never a smart move. Instead of spearing him with her saber, she decided to take a diplomatic approach.

“Let’s get dinner, Boba,” she said, laying a hand on the tip of his gun and gently pushing it toward the ground, away from her face. It was a two-for-one deal: She’d get to eat and keep Boba away from the data cores. He looked back to Din for, what? Permission to take her out or _take her out?_

“Din, you come along too. We have much to discuss,” she said, waving him over. The Mandalorian looked to Mathis and Cara; Mathis, the most easily flustered man Luna had ever met, was looking terribly annoyed with her behavior, while Cara was looking certainly amused. Cara raised her brows and smiled at Din.

“Seems like you’ve got your hands full. Don’t worry, we’ve got this data business handled. You go ahead, Din. We’ll catch up,” she said. Din nodded and joined Luna and Boba, the two bounty hunters flanking the Jedi as she walked. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a confirmation of the disturbance she felt earlier:

The Twi’lek and Trandoshan were following a short distance behind them.

* * *

In the back corner of the bustling cantina, Luna made herself at home with the menu Nevarro had to offer. After inhaling several servings of deep-fried gorg and Kodari-rice, Luna had, at Boba’s request, now dipped into the spotchka with him. Big mistake. And Din Djarin, as she’d learned was his full name, had still not removed his helmet. It was silently driving her crazy, wondering what he looked like, but she kept this thought to herself, trying to talk their ears off about the fascinating math behind hyperdrives and compressors--anything but the data cores, the mission. Boba Fett wasn’t amused.

“Enough of the chatter, girl. What is a Jedi doing working for the New Republic?” Boba pressed, and Luna could already feel the alcohol loosening her tongue. They’d let her eat and now the real interrogation was beginning, just as she’d begun drinking. _Bastards_. Luna could never turn down a drink. But she had to stay alert, to keep the mission intel secure, and to keep an eye out for those bounty hunters from earlier. She stared into Boba’s dark brown eyes, almost an exact reflection of her own, grateful for a real face to look at all night; unlike Din, he’d taken his helmet off the second food arrived at the table.

“It’s part of my trials to become a Jedi knight. I help the republic with missions and peacekeeping. Very exciting,” she explained, trying to dismiss the topic. Din’s helmet tilted to the side in thought, perhaps studying her.

“On the cruiser, Hao said you were already a Jedi ‘knight.’”

“Good memory,” she conceded. “He lied. I sound much more official if you add those words to my name though, don’t I?” She took another swig of her drink, surprised it went down easier than the first two sips despite the strength.

“Where are you from?” Din asked, deviating from Boba’s clearly intell-driven questioning. Luna was grateful for it.

“Cloud City,” she said, then instantly regretted it. Why had she given the real answer? She looked at Boba and could see his mind working, his eyes narrowing at her.

“Bespin? No one’s _from_ Bespin,” he said with distaste.

“I’m not rich, if that’s what you mean,” she replied, staring down into the bright blue liquid in her glass, “I was a servant.”

“She means slave,” Boba said to Din, but Luna slammed her hand down on the table, spilling their glasses. The Mandalorian’s hand hovered over his new blaster, freshly picked from Boba’s armory after the Empire confiscated his weapon as a prisoner.

“Let me be clear, Boba Fett. I answer to no one,” she said, jabbing a finger in the bounty hunter’s face, but Boba’s expression remained unchanged, unbothered by her fury.

“Of course you do, little one. You answered to the Tibanna mining complexes, and now you answer to the New Republic. You answer to your Jedi ‘master.’”

“It’s not like that,” she said, but her voice wavered just enough, betraying her. Her mind was wandering to the factory line, memories she wished would fade with time. Boba spotted the weakness and opened his mouth, ready to pounce, but Din pressed in instead.

“Who is your master? Are they also from Bespin?”

Luna felt her blood pressure dropping just from the sound of his voice; whether she liked hearing it in general or just not hearing Boba’s, she wasn’t sure. She called over her shoulder for more spotchka from the bar keep, then turned back to the two, trying to calm down. But in the back of her mind, the word was repeating over and over again. _Slave_.

“My master is a Jedi named Cal Kestis. He’s told me he’s from Bracca, but I’m not sure if that was really his home or not,” she said. Neither hunter reacted to the name, or just hid their reactions well--perhaps they weren’t hunting Jedi these days. Luna was sure Cal had bounties galore on his red-haired head.

“And Din, Jedi aren’t from any one place. They can be from anywhere and be any species in the universe, really,” she explained.

“How did he begin training you? Are foundlings assigned to masters?” Din asked, an eagerness entering his voice. The bar keep, a Rodian, placed three full glasses down in front of them. Luna took her glass and threw it back in one go. For Din, for his child, she was about to reveal some cards.

“In the old days, yes, at the right time a trained youngling would be assigned to a master and become their ‘padawan.’ Nowadays, the few of us that are left are spread out throughout the galaxy--so it’s much more informal if it happens at all.”

“So I...worked as a servant on Bespin until I was twenty-one in the processing vanes beneath the city, converting the Tibanna gas into carbonite. Then, one day...You boys know how the story goes. The Empire arrived on Bespin’s doorstep. And the admin of the city at the time, Lando--he opened the door.” Luna leaned over and plucked Din’s untouched drink from in front of him and took a swig, trying to drown out the memory of the betrayal she and the other citizens had felt. But she could still see the troopers descending into the tunnels, hear the screams of the people in the city above.

“I was alone,” she said quietly, and Boba stared down at the table top. They pulled some humans, Ugnaughts, and others off the line just to execute them right there at their feet, just to prove a point. Scare them into submission. She remembered emerging to the surface of the floating city, escorted out by the troopers, just to see a glance of Boba Fett walking side by side with the Sith. Their lives were just collateral damage in the Galactic Civil War.

“I thought I was going to die at the hands of the Empire--especially when the rebels who showed up were captured. But then, like a miracle, Cal was there. He somehow knew what I was and saved me and others, then helped me unlock this...power inside of me.”  
Luna thought of him, of Cere Junda and the rest--even BD-1. True warriors, true peacekeepers. Her family. Being apart from them for this mission while Cal was off-world, it was too much. What if they needed her? What if Cal still wasn’t back yet?

“I-I just have to get back to Bogano,” she said, standing up from the table a little wobbly from the alcohol, but as she turned to leave, she ran straight into Mathis and Cara. The captain, who was probably starving at this point, instantly became annoyed at the mention of the planet.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going on about Bogano again,” he said, and for some reason, whether it be the spotchka or his attitude, Luna was ready to fight him on it.

“Listen, _Captain Hao_. I have a life I need to get back to, people I need to protect. I can’t just keep running around and playing soldier with you,” she snapped. Mathis put his hands on her shoulders, maybe to steady her or calm her, but it only fueled her rage.

“Listen to me now, Luna. You’re not going back to Bogano because you think Cal will need you or that you need to continue your training--there is no war he wants to fight in anymore. There’s nothing left that he can teach you. You’re still thinking like a servant, like you owe him something.”

“You’re kriffing right I do!” she yelled, shoving his hands off of her. Several tables nearby stopped their conversations to look over, enjoying the show. “He gave me _everything_ ,” Luna said.

“Admit it,” Mathis yelled back, matching her energy, “You don’t help us on these missions out of the goodness of your heart-”

“I help the republic because it is the Jedi way, we are _peacekeepers_ -”

“-you do it so you can see the galaxy, finally explore the universe that was denied to you on Bespin. You need to forget Bogano, Luna. You’re only trapping yourself again.”

Luna pushed past him, eyes on the ground until she was alone outside the cantina, breathing in the freezing night air. The cold quickly started to sober her up and she cursed herself for being so open with Din and Boba--maker forbid if she were ever captured and interrogated. But deep down, she wanted to help Din know more about the Jedi, for his son.

She closed her eyes, picturing and feeling the warmth of Bogano’s suns, the musty smell of Eno Cordova’s old workshop, the sound of bog rats scampering by her cot at night. But then the sights and sounds melted into her cot at the New Republic Defense Force base on Chandrila, the sounds of Mathis and Lieutenant Jon Danner laughing over breakfast, the sight of endless stars and galaxies passing by outside their cruiser, the smell of burnt rubber and blaster fire smoke on the training grounds.

She felt like she was being torn apart. She wanted to kill Mathis for being right; she was trapping herself on Bogano. But what if she was also trapping herself with the New Republic?

“Are you alright?”

“Maker!” Luna shouted, jumping away from the Mandalorian who had appeared beside her.

“Sorry—I didn’t mean to scare you,” Din said, making sure to keep his distance as he did in the ship, as if she were a wounded animal. She glanced behind him, expecting the entire entourage, but found the hunter had come alone.

“Are we leaving already?” she asked.

“No...I just wanted to see if you were okay. Seemed pretty heated back there.”

“I’m fine,” she said, a bit too harshly, and the helmet only stared back at her, somehow knowingly.

“You know, I’m allowed to make mistakes,” she said more to herself, more to the Nevarro night air, than to Din Djarin. She turned away from him and kicked a rock, watching the lava meerkats scatter. She’d almost lost Mathis twice on this mission. Her failed Jedi mind trick, her failure to fully protect him from the vacuum of space. If the captain died, Luna would lose a part of herself, even if he was being a complete ass right now. And now, was she making an even bigger mistake by going back to Bogano when Mathis wanted her here?

“I just—I don’t know what my purpose is, you know? What am I meant to be doing with my life? Running around almost dying until I’m given the rank of Jedi Knight? Serving the New Republic until the Empire is snuffed out? How long will that take? My entire life?” she asked the ashy wasteland, hands raised to the sky. Help the republic as a peacekeeper, it is the Jedi way. Before that, train night and day, learn the ways of the force, of her supposed ancestors. Before that, survive being a slave in the Tibanna gas tunnels on Bespin. Her life was just a series of missions serving the needs and wants of others. Was it selfish to try to figure out what _she_ wanted? And right now, she felt like helping Din was the first time she got to have a choice.

“Sorry, I talk a lot when I drink, bad habit. But you’re a good listener, Din,” Luna sighed. But something was quickly creeping down her spine, a feeling of doom that you just can’t place. _Danger_. Luna spun around to face the warrior, but found he was being pressed against the cantina wall, the Trandoshan from earlier holding a blaster against his throat. Luna reached for the saber on her belt, but a blue hand from behind wrapped around her wrist and yanked hard, sending it rolling toward the horizon.

“Not so fast, _Jedi_ ,” the Twi’lek laughed in her ear. He pinned her arm behind her back and knocked her down to her knees, the jagged volcanic rocks digging into her legs. Luna silently cursed Din Djarin because she was right to keep quiet earlier in Cara’s office. Someone _was_ always listening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SandNinjaBunny: Thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying it so far.
> 
> Lauren: I promise not to leave you hanging...next time!


	3. That's No Battle Droid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading so far. This extra-long chapter has action, fluff, and plot galore--I hope you enjoy! Replies to comments at the end.

“I scream and a New Republic Marshal and Captain are out here in seconds to blast you to _bits_.”

“But you won’t scream, will you _girl_? Or else the Mandalorian gets his head blown off,” the Twi’lek replied, running a hand through her long, dark brown hair and digging his nails into the tanned skin of her pinned foreman.

The Trandoshan hunter removed Din’s blaster from his belt and tossed it near her saber on the ground, making sure to keep the gun at his throat. Luna was feeling a mix of anger, fear, and stress all at once, but could sense nothing but calmness from Din, who could be seconds from a gruesome death. She was imagining his blood spraying up the wall of the cantina and it being her fault. 

“Kato and I thought we hit the jackpot when we saw your friend's beskar armor. But when we heard you were a Jedi? You have no _idea_ what you’re worth to the right bidders,” the Twi’lek grinned. 

“I’m going to give you three seconds to let us go,” Din said suddenly, interrupting the hunter’s speech.

The two hunters exchanged a quick, nervous glance while Luna was wondering if Din would be giving her a secret signal of any sort—any hint to a plan other than just killing the two.

“Listen _Mando_ , you’re in no position to--” the Twi’lek said, but Din interrupted again.

“Three,” he said, and Luna had to laugh out loud-- _he was actually counting._

“Palla, I don’t think--” Kato began.

“Two,” Din said, sounding bored.

The Twi’lek, Palla, gritted his teeth, enraged by the sound of Luna’s laughter, for being undermined by his prey, and bashed the side of her face with the handle of his blaster. Her lip split open and blood splattered across the ground. She looked back up at Palla slowly with red gritted teeth, white-hot fury filling her body as blood poured down her chin. Din stopped counting.

He smashed his helmet against Kato’s head, sending him straight to the ground. Luna raised her hand and the saber flew into it and ignited. In one swift motion, the hand Palla had pinned her arm with was smoking on the ground and the hunter was rolling in the dirt and ash gripping his stump, screaming in agony. 

Kato scrambled to his feet and shot at the Mandalorian wildly with his blaster, but to no avail--every blast ricocheted off the beskar armor until Din was close enough to grab the gun from his hand and backhand the hunter with a clenched fist, sending him back down.

Luna was advancing toward Palla as he got to his feet and tried shooting at her, but his aim was miserable--she’d cut off his dominant hand. Tossing the gun in frustration, he charged at her with his fist raised, but Luna bent her knees, leaned into the attack, and misdirected his energy from below--her shoulder connected with his abdomen and then she thrust up, sending him flying over her. His body smacked against the ground and rolled until it came to stop beside Din’s discarded blaster. Before he could grab it, Luna stepped on his remaining hand and dug her heel, making him scream once more.

Kato was trying to crawl toward the cantina, but Din grabbed him by the back of his neck and threw him back down on the ground beside his friend. The Mandalorian and the Jedi stood over the two, glaring down at them.

“Who sent you?” Din growled, grabbing Palla by the front of his shirt. The hunter’s breathing was erratic, tears rolling down the sides of his face. 

“We just...wanted...the beskar,” he panted. Din’s fist clenched the material of his shirt a little tighter before letting go of it completely. The bounty hunter’s body flopped back onto the ground and he cried out, clutching his stump once more. Luna wondered if this happened to Din a lot. 

“We should give them to Cara,” Din said, turning toward the cantina. But Luna couldn’t believe he was going to let them live after attempting to kill them both. She felt sick thinking about them following her all day, the feeling of Palla running his hand through her hair, licking his lips at her in the marketplace. What if Din had never come out and she’d been alone? What were their intentions other than scoring extra credits?

“That’d be too easy for them,” Luna said, lowering her saber closer to their faces. The orange glow lit up the whites of their eyes and a new shot of adrenaline coursed through her; she felt almost entranced. She wanted them afraid. She wanted them to feel the fear she’d felt. She wanted them to _pay_ for crossing her. Din put his hand on her shoulder and she blinked hard, coming back to reality.

“Don’t, Luna. If we give them to Cara, she may be able to find out if this has some connection to the Empire or someone else.” 

She looked at him for a moment, then sheathed the saber. He was right, of course--any intel was good intel. But she wanted, _needed_ them to know she would’ve made a different choice otherwise.

“The Mandalorian wants you to live,” she said, looking down at the two. “Run into me alone next time and you’ll receive no such mercy.” 

She spat her own blood into Palla’s shaking face.

* * *

When Din and Luna returned to the cantina table dragging the two hunters on the ground behind them, Mathis and Cara were both unsurprised that trouble had found their respective friends. Reluctantly leaving the rest of their food, the two republic officials took Kato and Palla back to Cara’s office to be processed. 

At Mathis’ request, Din promised to take Luna back to the ship for medical attention, which had irked her--it was like watching two parents discuss their child in front of said child. She didn’t need any help.

“I know you don’t need me to escort you,” Din said as they walked back. That much was true. Luna was glad her position was clear to the man.

“Correct,” she replied. She took deep breaths of the cold Nevarro night air as they walked, trying to quell the headache brewing inside her bruised skull.

“But you do need _someone_ , don’t you? Is that why you keep Hao around?” 

Luna glanced at him sideways, confused for a moment. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You were going to execute them.”

“They tried to kill us. I was going to stop them from ever having the chance again,” she shot back and Din paused mid-stride, making her stop and turn back to face him.

“I’m used to the Empire sending trained assassin droids and hunters after me. Those two were amateurs. I would’ve killed them too if they were actually going to kill me. But a Jedi and Mandalorian? They never stood a chance,” he said. “What happened to being a ‘peacekeeper’?”

“Since when do Mandalorians lecture people on morality?” she replied, crossing her arms. But Din seemed unfazed and the tone of his voice shifted, as if he were speaking to a child.

“Being a Mandalorian means knowing when to take a life and when to spare one.”

Luna looked away from his helmet, focusing on the fading cityscape behind them. Since when did a Mandalorian bounty hunter get to be the one true moral compass of the galaxy?

“Let’s just say it’s hard to be a peacekeeper when all anyone ever wants to do is kill you,” she said, but she knew he was right. Her rage often helped push her forward when all hope was lost, when she was most in trouble, but it was also a dangerous motivator in battle. Mathis knew it. Cal knew it. Even this man she’d just met could see it. Luna cleared her throat to break the tension and turned to walk ahead.

“And for the record, Mathis is the one who keeps _me_ around,” she said over her shoulder. Maker knows that was certainly a mistake.

* * *

“Sit there,” Din commanded and Luna obliged, sitting on the edge of the cot Mathis had been lying in earlier. He left the room and she could hear him milling around the ship, opening and closing hatches and doors, searching for a medkit. Luna heard Fennec yell down a location from the cockpit to help, and he soon returned with a case and pulled up a crate to sit directly across from her. The room was already small, but being so close to the huge Mandalorian made it feel even smaller to Luna. Their knees bumped together as he went through the supplies. 

“Can I ask you something?” she said. 

“Sit still,” he replied easily. He wet a piece of gauze from the kit with an alcohol solution and began dabbing the jagged cuts on her cheek, and she immediately winced away from him. 

“What did I just say?” he said, but his voice was soft, non-threatening. Luna tried to hold still, clenching her fists as her wounds stung and ached under his touch. She thought she heard him chuckle under his helmet.

“You know, I can do this myself,” she muttered under her breath. 

“Hao made me promise to check you out myself. Said you’re no good with wounds and that you’ve given him lopsided stitches, infected punctures....that’s why I’m here, so let me do it right,” he said, moving on from the cuts on her face to her split lip. The wound burned as he cleaned and this time, she dug her nails into the cot. After a few moments, he reached back into the kit and brought out a needle. 

“Why don’t you take off that helmet? Is it part of your religion or something?” she asked, trying to focus on anything else. He paused, perhaps considering if he should answer her honestly. Luna was wondering about the significance—to protect his identity from the Empire? Or was it a religious thing after all?

“It used to be,” he said. “Now you _really_ need to hold still. You need a few stitches.” 

Din gripped her chin gently with his gloved hand to hold her in place while he worked, his helmet just inches from her face. Luna hoped her cheeks weren’t as red as they felt--it must’ve been the heat from the ship boiling her blood now that they were in from the cold. But how did the room get so hot so fast? Before he could bring the needle to her lip, she spoke again, trying to delay the inevitable.

“Then why don’t you take it off?” she asked. Din shushed her. 

“No more talking,” he said. Luna wanted to be mad, but couldn’t be when the Mandalorian was being so nice. Was this some sort of trap to gain her trust? If so, it was kind of working.

After a few torturous minutes of stitching, Din wiped the blood from her chin with his thumb and leaned back. Luna touched her face, fingers feeling the dissolvable thread expertly woven into her bottom lip. 

“All done. The stitches may be a little rough, but you’re just as pretty as before, I promise,” he said. The two were silent for a moment as Luna fought back a smile that would surely split her lip open again, her cheeks warming once more. Yeah, this trap was definitely working. 

A knock on the door startled them both, and they reached for their weapons instinctually.

“Do _not_ shoot me. I don’t have the time or patience to be unconscious again,” Mathis said, his hands up in surrender. 

“I don’t know, I think he can handle it,” Luna said as she crossed her arms and glared at him in the doorway. Din shifted uncomfortably between the captain and the Jedi, electing to stay out of it.

“What do you want?” she asked. If he came back to the ship just to convince her to abandon Cal on Bogano, she would pilot the ship off-world just to toss him out of the airlock for how he treated her earlier. 

“Just letting you know that Cara took over interrogating those bounty hunters. She told me she’d report back if she got anything out of them. Oh, and uh....Boba Fett says he wants to leave now if we’re going to make it to Tatooine by daylight,” he said, speaking quickly by the end. Luna looked from Din to Mathis with a mix of anger and confusion. Around them, they began to feel the ship shake and shudder as it prepared for flight.

“ _Tatooine_? Are you kidding me?” she said, and marched out of the sleeping quarters past the two men, past Fennec studying the holograms from her bounty pucks in the main hull, and up the ladder to the cockpit. Speeding up the rungs, she got to the top just as Boba set the coordinates for Tatooine. 

“Don’t jump,” she said, getting to her feet.

“Din, get your Jedi out of the cockpit!” Boba yelled over his shoulder, and jumped Slave I into hyperspace.

* * *

The ship soon landed in Docking Bay 35 of Mos Eisley, where a woman with curly brown hair waited at the end of the ship’s deployed ramp. Three pit droids were hiding behind her legs, holding wrenches and wire cutters, but seemed too afraid to move toward the ship just yet. The group descended the ramp together, Din and Boba silently at the front, Luna and Mathis arguing in the middle, and Fennec bringing up the rear.

“I’m just saying, the New Republic could’ve just lent Din a ship,” Luna was saying as she walked down the ramp, but Mathis was shaking his head, pinching the bridge of his nose to fight off an oncoming headache from her chatter.

“Do you think we're just made of endless money?” 

“No, but they can spare _one_ ship. Or else we’d already be on Bogano right now,” she said, and shoved him with her shoulder. The two quieted as the group reached the ground and whether she wanted to or not, Luna took a step onto Tatooine soil. Another pit stop. Another detour. She tried her best not to stare down Din who, after his sweet moment in the sleeping quarters, had instantly betrayed their promise to head to Bogano together. 

“Would ya look at that...the Mandalorian finally returns and now he’s got friends. Ain’t that nice,” the woman said, crossing her arms and looking at them all with an amused grin. She was wearing a rust-colored mechanic’s jumpsuit and had a grease stain on her left cheek. Luna thought she sounded and looked like she could hold her own on a battlefield and over an overheating compressor—a killer combo. She figured you’d have to be tough to live on Tatooine, but who knew the Mandalorian had such cool friends in general? 

“Good to see you too,” Din replied, but the woman was already walking past him to look at the Slave I, making displeased clicking noises with her mouth.

“Almost didn’t realize it was you in there. What’d you do with the Crest? Trade one piece of junk for another?” she asked, knocking on the side of an exhaust port. The three pit droids split up underneath the ship, one jumping to hang off a handle on the side, another crawling inside a ventilation hatch, another ripping off a loose panel door on the underbelly.

“Hey, keep those droids **off** my ship,” Boba growled, stepping toward the nearest one with his gun raised. It screamed and dove for cover in a nearby crate of loose circuit boards. 

“Hey! Don’t you shoot my droids! Mando, control your pal, will you?” the woman yelled over her shoulder as she ripped off an entirely different panel, making Boba flinch. He turned his helmet to Din slowly.

“I trust her,” he said, trying to reassure the bounty hunter. The woman dropped what she was working on and made her way back to the group just to shove past them, eagerly looking up the ramp.

“So?” she said, looking back at Din and then back to the ship a few times.

“Where’s my favorite little guy?” she grinned, throwing her hands up. Din looked away from the woman to the nearest door that would lead them into the spaceport and cleared his throat. Luna’s heart ached for Din--anytime someone even mentioned his son, he seemed to be brought right back to the moment he lost him. 

“He’s...being looked after. Check out the ship for us, will you? I’ll pay for any repairs,” he said, and Luna couldn’t tell if that was a lie to protect the woman or if the child was actually safe--which worried her greatly. Din immediately began walking toward the exit to spaceport, perhaps to avoid any more questions--and Boba and Fennec followed. Mathis nodded for them to follow too, but Luna couldn’t help but look back at the woman, whose face seemed crestfallen. She held out her hand, which the woman looked at with a raised brow.

“I’m Luna and this is Mathis,” she said. The woman thought for a moment, then grabbed her hand, shaking it roughly.

“Peli Motto--say, you’ve got nice calloused hands. Ever tear apart a ship before?” she asked Luna, and the Jedi smiled before wincing at the pain in her lip. She shook Mathis’ hand too and he forced a polite smile--Luna knew he was dying over the grease that was now all over his palm.

“Always wanted to give it a shot. I’ll make sure to come here if I need help,” she promised and Peli smiled politely, but it faded quickly as her eyes returned to the ship. Luna sensed her unease and reached out, gently touching her shoulder. Peli’s fears and worries about the child echoed in her just as Cara Dune’s and Din’s had--the Mandalorian’s Jedi son had touched many lives. The least Luna could do was make sure he was okay, right?

“I’m going to see to it that the child is safe and well,” she said and Peli gave her a small, genuine smile. Mathis looked at Luna strangely, like _Why make a promise you can’t keep?_

“Let’s go,” she said, pulling his arm toward the door. This promise was one she was definitely going to keep. After Bogano, of course.

* * *

On their way to catch up with Din, Luna and Mathis stopped in the nearest marketplace for some desperately needed new clothes. Mathis was forced to haggle in broken Huttese with a vendor, a Keshian with large blue eyes, while Luna tried on different sized boots, shirts, pants---and her personal favorite--cloaks. As she wiggled in and out of different outfits over her black clothes, she noticed the vendor eyeing the saber on her belt. Their eyes met and he tried to smile, playing it off.

“That a lightsaber?” he asked in perfect Basic and Mathis scoffed--the vendor had been trying to drive up the prices in Huttese just a second ago.

“Could be,” Luna replied, looking him up and down, evaluating- was he another bounty hunter out for blood? He looked harmless enough behind his clothing stand, but Luna wasn’t itching to be attacked again. The left side of her face still ached and was beginning to bruise a deep purple from Nevarro.

“You a Jedi, then?” he pressed. Mathis cleared his throat, trying to get his attention, waving credits in his face to pay for the clothes. But he wanted an answer. And she wouldn’t be giving him one.

“Come on,” she said to Mathis. The captain laid his credits down in front of the Keshian and grabbed their clothes, but the vendor didn’t grab the money or even try to haggle anymore about the price. He just stared ahead, studying them with an odd look on his face. His eyes didn’t leave their bodies until they rounded a corner. 

“That was frightening,” Mathis said and let out an exhausted sigh. “Any _danger tingles_?”

Luna led him into a dead-end alleyway, then turned and grabbed his shoulders, moving his body so it would block the entrance.

“We’re on Tatooine. I’m tingling constantly.”

She began peeling herself out of her filthy imperial clothes and into short black boots, dark grey pants, and a short-sleeved black top draped around her and secured at the waist with a black belt, her lightsaber attached on the left side. Mathis was instantly uncomfortable as she stripped, looking constantly over his shoulder at people passing by and whispering fervently that she should _just change back on the ship,_ but she was done in no time. She held up her new black cloak to cover the entrance of the alleyway and nodded at Mathis.

“I am not changing in an alleyway in the middle of Tatooine--do you want me to be shanked?” he said, his voice rising as his anxiety did.

“I _just_ did it--just do it quick or else I’m going to leave you here in your underwear,” she said. They felt like they were back to their old selves—Luna getting Mathis into situations he didn’t want to be in and him annoying her about it. She almost wanted to tease him for his modesty, but held back—she hadn’t forgotten what he’d said to her on Nevarro. 

Meanwhile, Mathis vowed he’d report this all back to New Republic Lieutenant Danner, an empty threat since Danner loved Luna, and quickly changed into black boots and pants, a dark blue shirt and a short brown leather jacket, his blaster attached to his belt on his hip. He pushed past her mumbling under his breath, his face red from having to change “where anyone could see” and “how dare she” and “where the hell was that Mandalorian, anyway?”

The captain and the Jedi melted back into the bustling marketplace looking for Din--Boba and Fennec had expressed they’d come to Tatooine for other “business,” but they knew Din was looking to buy a new ship. Maybe they’d finally make it to Bogano with him--maybe not. It seemed to Luna like the Mandalorian got side-tracked quite a lot. 

As they weaved through the crowds, Luna was careful who she was bumping into this time, doing her best to walk like Din had, and she managed to avoid the occasional sprinting Zabrak, strolling Rodian, and crawling Ruurian. Through one alleyway and out another, they finally arrived at an open plot of desert outside the crowds where dozens of ships--or more like, piles of scrap metal-- were parked haphazardly across the sand dunes, including a huge Sandcrawler. And in the middle, they spotted a flash of silver beskar arguing with a Jawa in front of an old, rusted VCX-series auxiliary starfighter.

“Were you trying to leave us here, Mando?” Mathis asked as they arrived at his side, but Din was busy speaking broken Jawaese to the Jawa at his feet, almost bending over to stick his finger in its face. Luna had to cover her mouth so she wouldn’t laugh and rip her stitches. 

“I am **_not_ ** paying that,” Din growled and the Jawa was waving him away, dismissing him, so the Mandalorian grabbed the front of his cloak and the Jawa instantly began screaming. Other Jawas began to come out of the woodwork, off the parked ships, from the marketplace, and off the Sandcrawler, to crowd around them.

“Din, put the Jawa down,” Luna said, backing away from them, but the Jawas began grabbing at her cloak, trying to pull her down to the ground, and they were doing the same to Mathis, tugging on his new pants as he swatted their hands away. A burst of flame from Din’s arm made them all retreat for a moment, including the Jawa he’d dropped. Before they could advance again, Luna put her hands up in peace. Her Jawaese was rough, but she did know one key phrase.

“Hey hey, why don’t we all calm down? Yu...yukusu kenza kee..na,” she said. They seemed to consider her offer and then surrounded her, pulling her by her cloak toward the parked Sandcrawler. Din and Mathis exchanged a look before following, the rest of the small Jawa army escorting them from behind.

“What did she say?” Mathis muttered and Din sighed, taking out his blaster just in case. 

“‘Let's make a deal.’”

* * *

The Jawas led them up the Sandcrawler’s ramp and inside the main cargo hold, which they instantly struggled to make their way through. The inside of the ship was covered floor to ceiling with wares from scrap metal to blasters of all shapes and sizes--even Empire era rifles--and droids of all kinds. Luna was pulled toward a group of them huddled in the corner, and the Jawas gestured to the pile, encouraging her to choose from them. 

“Better hope they’re not **_200,000_** **_credits_** ,” Din said from behind her, growling at the Jawas, but they laughed and pointed up at him, daring him to make a move against them on their own ship.

“200,000 for that space junk of a starfighter out there?” Mathis said in awe. “These guys really know how to corner a market.”

Luna ran her hand over the top of a red R-9 astromech droid, an LEP servant droid, and then the scrap-metal remains of an old Empire B1 battle droid. None of them looked operational. In an attempt to mend the metaphorical fence Din had stomped into the ground, Luna thought she’d buy something from the Jawas as a show of good faith, so maybe they’d let him still buy a ship. But she certainly wasn’t going to buy a scrap heap from them. As she started to stand back up, she heard faint beeping noises from underneath the battle droid. Leaning back down, she shoved the scraps and parts aside until two circular lenses looked up at her. Lenses she’d seen so many times before.

“BD-1?” she said. The droid burst from the graveyard of metal scraps and jumped around Luna on the floor, beeping loudly amongst the Jawas who reached for him with greedy hands. He jumped up onto Luna’s shoulder to escape them, but she barely felt his tiny metal feet gripping her skin. She could barely breathe.

“Is he your droid? What’s wrong?” Din asked and Luna was petting his antennae, checking to make sure he was in one piece as he beeped happily, but she was panicking, her breathing becoming erratic, her pulse speeding up.

“He’s Cal’s droid,” Mathis said quietly, his tone grave. “In other words, this can’t be good.”

“BD, where is Cal? How did you get here?” Luna asked, and at the mention of Cal’s name, BD-1 projected a hologram into the air between the captain, Jedi, Mandalorian, and the dozen Jawas, who gasped in awe below. The hologram showed Cal crouched behind some kind of boulder, with deep cuts in his face that were bleeding down into his eyes and then dripping off his chin. He kept wiping the blood from his eyes and glancing over his shoulder, the sounds of blaster fire all around him.

_Luna, if you’re hearing this then BD-1 found you-----good job, buddy. But, Luna, I need--your help--I’m on Tython--and---_

The hologram cut out for a moment, then Cal blinked back into existence, his voice growing more and more desperate. The message started to lose signal, every other word getting cut out.

_There’s---so---too many---contact Hao. Don’t come----I think there’s another Jedi---wrong one. We’re----tell Hao----You can do this, Luna._

Cal’s voice and image faded into the floor of the Sandcrawler, leaving Luna near to tears. She ran her hands through her hair, thinking, trying to calm herself down. 

“Did he say Tython?” Din asked. “I’ve been there, there’s this Jedi ‘seeing stone’ there. Could that have anything to do with him?” 

“I-I don’t know, maybe. He didn’t tell me where he was going when he left, and I thought he’d be back to Bogano by now, that he’d be safe. All this time I thought he was safe,” Luna replied and started rambling, holding her head in her hands. Before Mathis had the chance, Din stepped toward her and gently touched her arm, bringing her back to reality. BD-1, intrigued, jumped onto his shoulder, scanning his helmet. He did his best to ignore the droid.

“Breathe, Luna. If this Jedi is as good a master as you say he is, he’s going to be okay. But he did send this hologram to you for a reason--so what’s it going to be?”

Luna took a deep breath, trying to lower her heart rate and think clearly, rationally. If Mathis and Luna were going to help Cal, they needed more firepower. And that was standing right in front of them.

“Will you come to Tython?” she asked, and Din gave her a firm nod. This Mandalorian was getting into all kinds of trouble with them, but Luna was grateful for it. He was a good shot and an even better fighter, not to mention handy with a medkit. She hoped he’d maybe even stick around after Tython, after Bogano, but that already felt like years from now. Luna pushed past the Jawas at her feet and started down the Sandcrawler’s ramp and Din joined her at her side. Mathis was shaking his head as jogged to keep up behind them.

“Didn’t Cal say _not_ to go to Tython? He said he needs New Republic reinforcements from me, not a Jedi-knight-in-training and a bounty hunter,” he said. Behind them, the Jawas began to make noise, probably asking for payment for the droid and Luna paused halfway down the ramp.

“Din, do you have 200,000 credits for that starfighter?” she asked.

“Why, do you?” he countered.

“No, but I’ve got something else.”

She ignited her saber and faced the Jawas, who momentarily shrunk back in fear. She waved it out in front of her, trying to look menacing. 

“Oh maker, are space pirates now?” Mathis groaned, turning away so he could probably have deniability. Luna had to admit stealing from Jawas wasn’t her best idea ever, but these were desperate times. 

“We’re taking this droid. And that starfighter. Anyone who tries to cross us will be sliced in half, understand?” she said. The Jawas collectively roared as one in anger, and began sprinting down the ramp at them with ion blasters and knives raised.

“Time to run,” Din said and grabbed Luna by the arm, dragging her off the ship and back onto sweet Tatooine soil, with Mathis screaming not far behind. As they ran across the lot toward the starfighter, the three noticed other figures running toward them from the direction of the spaceport.

“Who the hell are they?” Mathis yelled and Luna felt the same unease she’d felt with the clothing vendor--and there he was. The Keshian was sprinting toward them with at least a dozen other bounty hunters, his large blue eyes locked on her. More hunters looking for Jedi or perhaps Din’s beskar. Either Palla and Kato weren’t working alone or Luna, Mathis, and Din were just the hottest bounties on the market. 

The three skidded to a stop to yank open the starfighter’s hatch and they climbed inside. Din and Mathis raced to the bridge while Luna secured the hatch and then peered out the window. The other hunters were jacking the Jawa’s parked ships too, with some engines failing in a puff of smoke. Hopefully that would buy them some time from being shot to death.

Din and Mathis were yelling and diving over one another flipping switches, prepping the engines, and warming up the hyperdrive. BD-1 was beeping loudly, jumping up and down in a passenger seat. The angry mob of Jawas was nearing the outside hatch.

“T-minus one minute until Jawas kill us,” Luna called back. The aircraft shook in response, lurching into the air in a staggered pattern. The metal walls around them whined and crunched, loose screws echoing as they rolled down different pipes and shafts. Three stolen ships with bounty hunters took to the air behind them, barely a click away.

“Three bounty hunter ships behind us,” Luna said, joining them up in the front. Din and her gripped the backs of their passenger seats as Mathis piloted the ship almost completely vertically into the atmosphere, trying to get off-world as soon as possible, but the ascent slowed their speed significantly. The bounty hunter ships were gaining, with a few testing blasts from their cannons exploding on either side of the starfighter.

“Mathis,” Luna said in warning.

“I got it, I got it,” Mathis said casually, waving away the reminder. Din and Luna peered out the nearest window at oncoming the enemy ships. 

“Just to be clear if we die, he wouldn’t let me fly,” Din said and Luna laughed despite the stinging in her lip.

“Of course not. This is Captain Mathis Hao, we’re talking about Din. I’m pretty sure he was born in a pilot’s chair.”

Even stressed beyond belief, Mathis was beaming to be back in a pilot’s seat, and he rubbed his hands together before grabbing the controls with tight fists. 

“Just watch me lose them,” he said grinning. The captain shoved the controls forward roughly and the starfighter took a nosedive with nothing but the burnt orange sands of Tatooine dead ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lauren: So glad you enjoyed Chapter 2 and you like how Luna is developing--she's an angry little Jedi with a lot of heart, haha
> 
> SandNinjaBunny: Thank you! Hope you enjoy Chapter 3 : )


	4. A Wicked Haven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Another extra-long chapter (and I'm already writing the next one!) that has lots of action, some fluff, and plot galore--I hope you enjoy! Replies to comments at the end.

At the last possible moment, Mathis pulled the controls back up and the starfighter skimmed the sands of Tatooine, diving left, then right around huge dunes and rock formations. The bounty hunter ships lagged behind them, barely managing to avoid crashing as they sped to keep up--putting them right where the captain wanted them.

“Grab onto something!” he shouted and Luna and Din stumbled into the two passenger seats behind him to buckle up and pull the belts as tight as they could go. Luna grunted in frustration, unable to get her belt to latch because the mechanism was rusted and broken in half, so Din leaned over and tied the leather straps together into a tight knot against her stomach.

“Safety first,” he said and Luna couldn’t help but smile, her lip aching. Din was pretty good at making people rip their stitches, it seemed. Maybe so he could keep sewing them up in the incredibly small sleeping quarters of the Slave I. BD-1 jumped up and clung to her shoulder, his beeps growing louder as he became more and more alarmed as the ship’s increasing speed.

Explosions racked both sides of the vessel, so loud Luna could barely hear her heart pounding in her chest or the sounds of the ship rattling as it struggled to stay airborne. But despite her war heart, she had faith in Mathis Hao. He ran circles around the other pilots back on the New Republic base on Chandrila and today would be no exception. Hopefully.

“Let’s dance,” Mathis said. He shot the starfighter back up from the sands and into the open atmosphere, baiting them. One of the bounty hunter ships peeled off from the pack, shooting its blasters and steadily climbing closer on their left flank. It banked toward them suddenly, meaning to crash into them and take off one of their wings, but the captain cut the engines and barrel-rolled underneath it, shooting at it from below. 

The ship’s left engine burst into flames and the pilot tried to dive, shooting down at them, but Mathis ignited the engines and punched the starfighter above, then swung the ship around with the reverse thrusters to face the enemy head-on. He blasted their cannons first, then the right engine, and the ship exploded, the debris and shrapnel showering their starfighter like ice crystals in a storm on Hoth. Mathis cheered and shot the ship to a higher elevation, past the remaining two ships. 

But the other bounty hunters refused to be baited. This time, they crept closer until they were almost sticking to the starfighter’s rear no matter how hard Mathis turned or jolted their hunk of metal. He damaged the closest one by stopping short and slamming back into it— bending its nose— but it held its position, almost hiding in the ship’s smoky wake. They were flying so close that Luna could feel the heat from the blasts hitting the back hatch each time they fired, the shots threatening to melt the hull and suck them out. 

”I can’t shake them, they’re right up my ass,” Mathis cursed, careening the ship left and right. Luna dug her nails into the leather seatbelt, thinking up battle strategies. She was not going to let them die on Tatooine. Not when they had a rescue mission to do.  _ You can do this, Luna,  _ the hologram had promised. Cal was depending on them making it to Tython--no matter what.

She ignited her saber and sliced through her seat belt, then slid across the hull and down to the back hatch. She shrugged off her cloak and BD-1, who jumped onto a nearby passenger seat along the wall.

“Exactly how close are they?” she yelled back up to the bridge. Mathis shook his head in confusion, trying to focus on flying. Luna grabbed the handle to the hatch, hoping to move quickly, but Din was already onto her, ripping off his seatbelt and sliding down the hull to land at her side.

“What’re you going to do?” Din asked over the blaster fire. He grabbed the handle before she could open the hatch, his large hand overlapping onto hers, and they stared each other down. Luna raised a brow, begging him to try to stop her.

“Wait, what is she doing?” Mathis shouted, banking the ship away from another blast. 

“I’m getting rid of our problem,” Luna shot back to Mathis, then looked at Din. She could already feel the rush of the wind shaking the hatch door, feel the excitement and bite of the cold air of the upper atmosphere. Living in a city in the clouds did have its perks--Luna loved to fly. But she loved to fall even more.

“Can Jedi fly or something?” Din said, sounding only half-serious and less than thrilled about her apparent plan. The corner of Luna’s mouth twitched in amusement. 

“No, but we’re pretty big on jumping.”

She gave the back of Mathis’ pilot seat one last longing look, in case things didn’t go as planned.  _ Don’t die _ , her stare said, even if she wouldn’t say it out loud. She hoped Mathis knew she cared about more than Bogano or Chandrila. That she cared about more than just becoming a Jedi Knight or New Republic spy. That she wanted more than the paths she’d been forced on to define her legacy. 

“Keep it steady, Captain!” Luna yelled suddenly and kicked open the back hatch, surprising Din and causing him to jolt away from the door. The metal door slammed back against the ship in the wind, pinning it open, and she jumped from the hull, saber ignited. 

She landed hard on top of the ship that was tailgating directly behind them, her saber piercing the hull as her momentum and the rushing wind dragged her down the back of the vessel, splitting it in half mid-air. She cursed as she teetered from one foot to the other as the craft split beneath her. Spotting the last bounty hunter ship nearby, she tried to leap onto its wing, but the Duros pilot locked eyes with her through his windshield--and grinned as he dove away. Luna missed and tumbled into the open air as the ship she’d been on crumbled and exploded behind her, until arms wrapped around her waist and her body slammed into beskar, knocking some air from her lungs.

“Nice catch,” she coughed. Din propelled them above the starfighter with his jetpack to avoid the wrecked ship as it burned and spiraled back to Tatooine.

“Nice jumping,” he replied, but Luna was already focused on their last target--the barely functional U-wing that had just escaped her grasp and was now blasting the starfighter relentlessly from below. Mathis was avoiding most of the blasts with textbook spirals and dives, but he was also trying to keep the ship level for Din and her to jump back on at any moment--putting the ship and his life in danger. 

“Throw me,” Luna shouted over the rushing wind. She aimed her saber over her shoulder like a spear, getting in position, but Din’s grip around her waist tightened. 

“We’re doing this one  **_my_ ** way.”

The Mandalorian shot down toward the ship which careened away from them, detecting the threat. Free from the heavy fire, Mathis peeled the starfighter away and fell back to cover them from behind. Din picked up speed as he followed after the bounty hunter ship and Luna held onto the arms wrapped tight around her, her hair whipping around in her face wildly. Din was fast, but the U-wing was faster, punching it each time they got close and managing to stay out of Mathis’ scopes at the same time. If the ship was just a click slower, they could board and end this---they could already be on their way to Tython.

No more wasting time Cal didn’t have. Luna reached out her hand and closed her eyes, focusing on the ship with all her might. Her master’s voice came to mind, his desperate plea repeating over and over again. 

_ Luna, I need--your help.  _ She tried to project hope, strength, and patience--and opened her eyes.

The U-wing dragged for a moment, then caught back up with its original pace, her grip on the force failing. Not good enough, another mistake. She gritted her teeth and tried again, closing her eyes and digging down deep, searching for a different feeling, one she knew she could always trust. She pictured Palla and Kato’s shaking faces. Felt the blood dripping down her face.  _ We just...wanted...the beskar,  _ Palla wept.

She felt their fear and felt her anger return--and opened her eyes. The U-wing slowed, its engines whining as the metal frame shook and it reluctantly halted in place mid-air, just long enough for Din and Luna to land on top and grab something to hold onto. Luna released her hold with an exhausted gasp and the ship blasted forward once more, now with two new, unwelcome passengers. They knew they had just seconds before the pilot caught on.

“When I say let go,  _ let go _ ,” Din yelled over the winds and Luna nodded, her white-knuckle grip on the right wing tightening. The Mandalorian began crawling and placing charges down the spine of the vessel leading up to the cockpit. They all began blinking red and chiming a countdown tune as Din hit a timed detonator button on his wrist. But in front of him, the cockpit hatch rose and the Duros pilot emerged wearing magno-grip boots and raising his blaster, with the ship now in autopilot. 

Luna raised her saber and pierced the wing, trying to use it as leverage to stand up against the wind, but the bounty hunter shot her down, hitting her shoulder. She screamed in pain and fell back, skidding across the back of the ship until her saber could pierce the side and she held onto the hilt as it slowly dragged and ripped the metal apart, her legs dangling in the air. The chiming tune of the charges was close to reaching a crescendo.

“Don’t move, Mando! Or you’re next,” the Duros warned, aiming his blaster down at Din. The Mandalorian shot the metal rope out from his wrist, wrapping around the pilot’s legs, then used him as an anchor to roll to the side and up on one knee, firing off a single blast from his gun. The bounty hunter stood for a moment, the smoke of burning flesh billowing from his eye socket, before slumping over, his body still clinging to the ship from his magno-grip boots.

“Luna, let go!” Din yelled, releasing the metal rope and dropping off the ship. Luna ripped her saber free from the U-wing and began plummeting through the clouds back to Tatooine below. But her descent felt slow, even lazy, her world warping around her. Something was off. Wasn’t it daytime? The suns were suddenly gone, replaced with a midnight blue sky and constellations stretching across the horizon. 

Instead of an exploding U-wing, a small transporter ship was flying in front of her with a beautiful dark-haired woman leaning out the back hatch. She was gripping her arm as Luna dangled in the air, the woman screaming, tears running down her cheeks.  _ Don’t let go, don’t let go!  _ But the scene quickly changed, was her mind playing tricks on her? Luna was now gripping the woman’s arm and she was trying to pry her fingers off, screaming,  _ Let go! Let go!  _ Desperate to get away from her, to let her fall for the last time.

Luna slammed into a beskar embrace once more, her head cracking against Din’s chest plate as he caught her, and the world faded around her to absolute nothingness.  _ Let go, let go, let go... _

* * *

Luna woke to the sounds of alarms and sat upright quickly, but the blood rushed to her head and her vision became fuzzy, filled with static. She held her head in her hands and groaned, then felt the blaster wound in her shoulder ache with such a fury, she thought she might black out again. It was just a superficial wound.  _ Suck it up _ , she told herself.

“What’s going on?” she mumbled. Flashes of the woman on the transport ship entered her mind. Had she seen some kind of vision?

“I let Din fly, that’s what’s going on,” Mathis’ voice replied. “How are you feeling, you absolute  _ maniac _ ?”

When she could open her eyes again without vomiting, she spotted the captain beside her in the other passenger seat; he was holding BD-1 in his lap and glaring at the pilot’s chair in front of them where Din was sitting. Perhaps the woman had been a vision after all---it didn’t matter right now. Premonition or not, Luna was just relieved they were all alive and off Tatooine. 

She took immediate comfort in seeing the vast expanse of hyperspace outside the windows instead of the burnt orange sand dunes they’d almost been buried in. She reached over and grabbed Mathis’ hand and gave it two hard squeezes,  _ I’m glad you’re alive _ , which he returned with a small smile, trying to act like a disappointed parent.  _ Don’t do that again _ . They stared at one another for a moment, and Luna willed him to bring up Nevarro. To take back what he’d said so they could finally get rid of the tension between them.

“ **_Hey_ ** , I know how to fly a kriffing starfighter. Maybe if it hadn’t been hit so many times we wouldn’t be having issues,” Din countered. His gloved hands were flying over the controls, flipping switches and turning knobs, and the alarms finally ceased, but too late for Luna--a new headache had already taken root in her brain. She broke her staring contest with Mathis and stood, pulling on her cloak wobbly at first, and walked up into the cockpit by Din’s side. His helmet glanced up at her for a moment, his eyeline lingering on the wound in her shoulder.

“Are we almost to Tython?” she asked at the same time Din said, “That needs to be cleaned.” 

“It’s fine, but thanks for worrying,” Luna smiled. She was a fast healer--they could worry about bumps and scrapes after Cal was safe. Din cleared his throat and looked back at the star chart in the ship’s navigation console and nodded. 

“We’re just about there,” he replied and leaned back in his seat, arms crossed. “I just hope your Jedi Master is still there after all this.”

“You guys, I’ve got an incoming transmission,” Mathis said, rushing to the front and squeezing in between them. He placed his holopad on the arm of the pilot’s chair and slowly but surely, a hologram of Marshal Cara Dune began to appear, the audio muffled.

_ Hao, I’ve got something. And it’s big. Turns out these  _ **_mudscuffers_ ** _ \--- _

Cara turned to what Luna could only assume was one of the hunters tied up out of frame and punched them, the sound of a weak groan emitting through the background audio of the hologram.

_ \---are Empire. Or at least, they were hired by them. And they’re not the only ones. They say---is paying handsomely for any Jedi----catch. But they don’t know why, only that the credits they get could set them up for life. And get this---the New Republic is starting to pick through the data we transmitted. The cruiser---several trips to the planet Tython. May---a base there. _

Cara looked into the camera with a deep frown, concern etched in every corner of her face. Luna knew she was speaking directly to her friend now.

_ If I know you, you’re already headed there now. But listen to me: Don’t go to Tython, Din---call for backup. Even if—- he’s wrapped up in this, even if he’s there, this is---going to be more than any of us can handle alone. _

The transmission ended and Mathis was already tampering with the holopad, face scrunched in concentration. BD-1 jumped onto his shoulder, scanning his face and then the device.

“I’m going to try to get through to New Republic High Command,” he said. “Like Cal said and now Cara, we clearly aren’t going to make it without some military muscle.”

Luna agreed—if there was really an imperial base on Tython then their team of three wouldn’t be close to enough. She turned her attention back to Din to start strategizing, but he was still staring at the spot where Cara’s image had been, entranced.  _ Even if he’s wrapped up in this _ , she’d said.

“Do you think your son could be in danger?” she asked. The helmet looked up at her, then back at the star chart as Tython blinked closer and closer.

“He’s under the protection of another Jedi. He should be safe, but…something isn’t right. Bring me your droid,” he said, nodding to BD-1. Luna snatched her friend off Mathis’ shoulder and placed him in front of the Mandalorian.

“Play the message again,” Din ordered. BD-1 looked up at Luna and she nodded her permission. Cal appeared as he did before, beaten and bloodied, panic etched in his face. Din let the message play out until one point, where he raised his hand for Luna’s attention. She listened carefully, leaning forward to distinguish the audio.

_ \----I think there’s another Jedi---wrong one.  _

“There,” Din said. “I think I know why the imps are on Tython.” 

* * *

“This is much worse than Yavin 9, by far,” Mathis groaned, shaking his head. Luna was pacing around the bridge in circles trying to wrap her mind around all Din had unloaded on them. The Mandalorian had certainly been holding back on huge amounts of information, but now that he seemed to trust them, he was ready to ask for help.

“Okay, so your son, Grogu, reached out into the force for a Jedi Master but was kidnapped by the Empire before one could come. So you think the Empire is using Tython as a sort of…choke point? Like, waiting for Jedi to arrive to help Grogu and then capturing them?”

“Yes,” Din said again. Luna sat and then stood, returning to circling, gnawing on her sore lip and continuing to ignore the pain in her shoulder.

“But why? Why does the Empire want Jedi in the first place?”

“They were doing things with his blood. Experiments,” he replied. Mathis and Luna exchanged a confused look.

“Experiments for what?” Mathis asked, narrowing his eyes, but Din was getting antsy from all the questions. 

“Look, I don’t know any more than that. What matters is what your master said. He said ‘wrong one’ — I think Cal Kestis went to Tython for Grogu and has been pinned down ever since, sending out his own distress calls. Then, another Jedi came to help. What if the Jedi that’s been protecting Grogu went back to Tython to help and now they’re all in trouble?” Din was standing now too, his hands in tight fists. 

“Din, it’s alright--” Luna began, trying to calm him, but he was already amped up, pacing around the bridge.

“What if I gave him up just to have him be put right back in danger? How could I just trust that Jedi?”

Luna moved to touch his arm, but Din pulled back, pointing at her and Mathis to make himself deadly clear. His body language and moment of distrust brought her back to when they’d met on the cruiser-- the way he’d emerged from the darkness of his cell like some kind of angel of death. But Luna didn’t fear him at that moment. She felt his fear instead, his voice raw with emotion---and it broke her heart.

“I need to make sure my son is safe. That is the  **_only_ ** thing that matters,” he said. No one would get between this father and his son, that much was clear. 

“But what’re the odds it's  _ that _ Jedi?” she said quietly in an attempt to comfort him. Din shook his head slowly. 

“Because someone told me that there aren’t many Jedi left in the first place. And now there’s two on Tython,” he replied. “I don’t like those odds.”

The strain in his voice was a father trying to keep himself together while also preparing for the worst. Luna wouldn’t let the worst happen. Grogu, Cal, and the mystery Jedi would be saved because unlike her training, her years in servitude, her time working for the New Republic---this was something Luna was choosing to fight for of her own free will, which meant damn well she’d do it and she’d do it right.

“I will do everything that I can to make sure Grogu is safe, Din. I promise,” she said. 

* * *

“Mathis,  _ please _ ,” Luna said, her eyes squeezed shut, nails embedded in the polyester seat cover. The starfighter was plummeting to the surface of Tython at top speeds and all they could hear was the wind rushing past them and Mathis stubbornly flipping the engine switch on and off, on and off, with no payoff.

“It’ll come back,” he said, but the panic creeping across his face said otherwise. The captain had cut the engines to drop through Tython’s atmosphere as fast as possible--enemy radars below would only register them as a mere blip in the system--then ignite them closer to the ground so they could skim the surface and find a safe spot to land. But the engines refused to ignite and Tython was only getting closer.

“Rough landing ahead,” Mathis laughed nervously and held on tightly to the controls. Luna looked down at the mangled seatbelt she’d sliced in half earlier. That wasn’t going to work this time. 

“Aim for the ships,” Din said, jumping up from his seat.

“ _ What _ ?” Mathis asked, but the Mandalorian was already pushing the controls down and locking them on the rows of stormtrooper transport ships quickly coming into view below. He pulled Mathis out of the pilot’s chair by the back of his jacket, then grabbed Luna’s arm, and dragged them both to the back hatch, with BD-1 trailing behind on the floor.

“What’re you doing? I can save her!” Mathis said, trying to make a break for the cockpit, but Din held onto him firmly until he slid back into place.

“Time to abandon ship, Captain,” he replied and kicked open the hatch as Luna had earlier, but this time, Luna, and especially Mathis, were  _ not _ ready to jump. Their boots skidding across the floor as he dragged them to the door. BD-1 latched onto Luna’s leg just as they blasted out of the ship and into the open air, and over the explosion of the starfighter meeting Tython soil, Luna could hear Mathis screaming. Din had a grip on one of their arms in either hand and flew quickly down to the planet below, dropping them unceremoniously on the ground. Mathis was hyperventilating but alive, his chest heaving air at a rapid rate. 

“What the fuck? What the fuck?” he said between breaths and Luna tried not to laugh as she stood and shook the dirt out of her hair. BD-1 was already scanning the planet around them, beeping facts about the wildlife and flora.

“Are you okay?” she asked and Mathis touched his chest and face slowly, looking around with a dazed expression.

“I think so…”

“Then stop complaining,” she said. “That’s twice Din’s saved our skins. We have to be better than this Mathis or he’s going to start to think we don’t know what we’re doing.”

“We  _ don’t _ ,” the captain shot back clearly annoyed, and Luna shrugged at Din like,  _ Sorry this is what you’re stuck with. _

“Hey, you there!” a modulated voice yelled. From the brush, three stormtroopers appeared, blasters raised, but Din stepped forward and eliminated them in seconds, their bodies already smoking on the ground before Mathis could even get to his feet. Din touched the side of his helmet and scanned the horizon, walking toward the brush in three long strides. Luna could see the fire from the starfighter wreckage burning in the distance, but in front of it, a high ridge with rock formations lined in a perfect circle at the top. She felt the tingles begin to buzz in her bones--that must be the seeing stone.

“This place is crawling with imps. We’ve got a platoon headed this way,” Din said as he casually reloaded his blaster. Luna ignited her saber and Mathis finally got his blaster out of its holster. She breathed deeply, trying to reach out into the force and sense any other Jedi on the planet, but felt nothing but the presence of the seeing stone ahead of them. She pointed up at the ridge with her saber, looking at Mathis and Din.

“We fight our way through. If Cal and the Jedi are still here, I can try to use the stone to locate them. Or we can use the ridge as a higher vantage point to see them from above. Either way, these troopers are in our way,” she said. 

“Not for long,” Din replied. So like on the cruiser, the Mandalorian’s moral compass clicked off for stormtroopers—she liked the sound of that. Mathis rolled his shoulders next to her, took a quick breath, then stalked ahead of them both, wading through the brush.

“On me, soldiers,” he yelled back, and Din and Luna exchanged a glance--Luna smiling knowingly and Din, unreadable behind his helmet, though Luna felt he was probably rolling his eyes--before joining their captain. 

* * *

To say there was “maybe” an imperial base on Tython was an understatement. The planet was littered with stormtroopers, imperial transports, and commanding officers--there were huge temporary canvas shelters holding crates of medical supplies and weapons, groups of imps polishing rows of parked TIE fighters, and even a training ground set up for target practice, the human-sized targets surrounded by blaster holes in the ground. They watched imps sprint around the make-shift base, with most rushing to put out the fires engulfing a chunk of their transport ships from the crashed starfighter. It took only a few seconds for a nearby trooper to notice them walking out of the brush. 

“We should handle this quietly,” Mathis warned. The imp approached them slowly, looking them up and down--a Mandalorian in full beskar armor, a girl who was trying to hide a lightsaber behind her back, and a New Republic Captain avoiding eye contact.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the trooper said. Din stepped forward and grabbed him by the throat, warped choking noises coming through his helmet, and threw him back into a stack of supply crates. Suddenly, their fan club grew a whole lot bigger--stormtroopers began to emerge from every direction, blasters and cannons raised. The transport fire was clearly no longer a viable distraction. 

“Watch each other’s backs and make it for the stone!” Luna yelled and threw her saber hard as Cal had taught her, using the force to spin and cut through a circle of oncoming troopers before returning to her hand. Mathis grabbed the first sniper rifle to hit the ground and took up a vantage point behind them, picking off any enemies who got within a few feet of them, with BD-1 clinging to his back. Din pushed forward with Luna as Mathis covered them, any blasts directed at the Jedi bouncing off his beskar as he stuck close and shot troopers off the high ground ahead of them. They moved as a unit quickly across the landscape, ducking for cover and knocking out troopers with their bare hands when they got too close.

By the time they made it to the base of the ridge, they’d left a trail of bodies in their wake, stormtrooper armor askew across the ground and blood beginning to pool in dips in the earth where rainwater should’ve been. It was a bloodbath, but still more came, with seemingly endless amounts of troopers marching straight for them. Din and Luna dove behind a boulder to catch their breath, the both of them gasping with their backs up against the stone. Mathis took up position beside them and kept firing, his rifle peeking out over the top of their hiding spot. BD-1 jumped off of him and onto the ground, scanning their surroundings. 

As she tried to catch her breath, Luna leaned her head against the boulder, but it felt uneven and almost ribbed, her hand running through long divots carved into its side. BD-1 beeped up at her as he scanned the boulder, his screen turning red. She leaned away from it, confused, her fingers tracing the long blackened lines. Cuts from a  _ saber _ . She looked at the landscape around them, the boulders and mountains in the distance, the brush sitting just so, and felt a wave of dread wash over her as she realized why the scene was becoming familiar.

“This is where Cal sent the hologram from,” she said. Had Cal cut into the boulder as a message or was he dueling with a trooper right here, fighting for his life? But strangely enough, the cuts into the boulder crossed in the middle, as if from a dual wielder or two Jedi cutting down an enemy in unison--Luna couldn't be sure. 

“Then where is he?” Mathis grunted as his rifle recoiled again and again into his shoulder as he kept the troopers at bay. 

“I hope your friends at the New Republic got your message,” Din said, but he clearly wasn’t betting on them making it in time. Neither was Luna, really. But for some reason, with Din and Mathis by her side, she was feeling foolishly optimistic. 

“Think you can fly me up to the stone?” she nodded to the top of the ridge.

“Without them shooting us down first?”

“Everyone knows stormtroopers can’t hit anything.”

Din’s eyeline leveled with the blaster wound in her shoulder and Luna scoffed.

“Oh come on, that was from a bounty hunter. And if anything, it shows that I can take a hit,” she said. But the sweat dripping down her brow said otherwise--all her efforts to ignore the pain in her shoulder had worked until Din mentioned it again, her subconscious slowly catching on. The numbing adrenaline from battle was fading and the ache was returning, blood seeping through her shirt. 

“You really are a bad liar,” he replied and Luna shoved him with her good shoulder. First Mathis and now Din--she couldn’t catch a break between the two of them. She’d deal with the wound later--right now she needed to get to that stone.

“You gonna fly me up there tin can or do I have to sprint up that hill alone?” she snapped. Din sighed and stood, grabbing her arm, pulling her into his chest. The same warmth she’d felt on Slave I came creeping across her face again, but this time, it couldn’t be the heat of the ship boiling the blood in her cheeks. Perhaps a fever from her blaster wound was setting in?

“Hold onto the tin can, Jedi,” Din instructed, sounding amused, and she obliged, wrapping her arms around his neck while he grabbed her waist.

“BD-1 and I will cover you from below. Be quick, please. I think they’ve fallen back to set up an E-Web and I’d rather not be murdered while you’re playing space telephone,” Mathis said, still crouched on the ground with an eye in his scope. Din shot them into the air quickly, banking toward the top of the ridge. They were easy targets in the air, but Mathis did have them covered--any imp whose helmet was tilted up to the sky to spot them got shot in the stomach by him on the ground. They touched down by the seeing stone in seconds and Luna let go of Din to run toward it, but he yanked her back by her wrist. His demeanor had changed quickly now that they were in the presence of the stone.

“What is it?” she asked, teetering from one foot to the other anxiously. They needed to move quickly if they were going to survive this mission at all.

“Just--be careful. That stone is very powerful,” he said, slowly releasing her wrist. He looked around the sacred spot, then down at the troopers grouping together below, the faint sounds of Mathis’ rifle fire echoing around the ridge. No sight of Cal or any other Jedi. 

“It’s only as powerful as the Jedi who touches it,” she reassured him as she made her way toward it. She was only half sure about that. Seeing stones weren’t necessarily part of training sessions with Cal. 

“This is where I lost him,” Din said. Luna’s hand hovered over the stone and she looked back at Din over her shoulder. He was looking down at his empty hands, perhaps where his son should’ve been.

“I promise I’ll come back,” she said and he looked at her, his helmet tilted to the side as if to say, _I'll believe it when I see it_. She turned back to the stone and took a deep breath, trying to hype herself up. She could do this,  _ she could do this _ . 

“I’m going to reach out in the force and see if I can see where they are, if they’re in trouble. Cal, Grogu, and anyone else I can find. Watch my back while I’m out, will you?” 

“I’ll protect you,” Din promised and he turned to face the trail leading to the top of the ridge, in case the troopers overwhelmed Mathis below. Luna reached out and touched the stone, slowing her breathing and beginning to meditate, and Tython began to slip from her reality and fade into the shadows and pools of blood on the battlefield below. Din’s grave voice was the last thing she heard as she connected with the force in and around them, in every living being on that planet, and spiraled into some unknown place of myth and ruin.

_ If you see my son, tell him I’m coming for him. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> megansdrafts: I'm so glad you liked the first chapter! Yeah Luna is constantly trying to listen to Cal's teachings, but in a way, she's found her own path--I like writing her a lot.
> 
> Lauren: Love your comments :) Only a bit of Tython in this chapter, but there is much more to come...Thank you for reading!


	5. Don't Go Where I Can't Follow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fyi, this chapter name is a LOTR quote. Gotta give credit where credit is due, Sam Wise.
> 
> As always, thanks for reading. Y’all have no idea how fast I wrote this! This is an early birthday present to you and me (my birthday is on 3/3). This chapter’s got character development, major plot, and fluff. Enjoy! Replies to comments at the end.

Luna could see the stars. Roaring, burning suns exploding on the tips of famed constellations with the endless expanse of space as their audience. She could see the bright beautiful cosmos and solar systems that glided by as her view of the universe expanded, and Tython shrank from her reach. She could no longer feel the warmth from Tython's sun, smell the grass and flora of the planet, or hear the blaster fire from the stormtroopers. 

Din’s voice in her head was replaced with the voices of the Jedi, whispers from those who came before her, those still among the living, and those who had yet to come. She breathed deeply, trying to focus her energy. She needed to ground herself and pick out Cal’s voice from the others--reach out into the force and finally know if her master was even still alive. The whispers were beginning to crescendo, and Luna fought to speak over them.

_ Cal Kestis _ , she thought.  _ Show me my master, Cal Kestis.  _

The universe replied. Her view shrunk a thousandfold and the stars warped around her into streaks, then dots, as if she were traveling through hyperspace with just her body as the vessel. She opened her eyes in the hallway of an imperial cruiser. Not a great first sign. She looked down at her hands then the rest of her body, tapping her boot on the floor. Everything felt so...real, so solid. How could that be?

“Luna? Is that you?” a weak voice called. She sprinted down the hall toward the voice until she stood in front of a closed door, examining the locking mechanism. How was she supposed to break in if she wasn’t really there? She touched the metal gently with her hand and when she blinked, she was already inside the room. And there he was.

Cal was strapped down by his wrists and ankles to a med scanner bed, with machines beeping and pumping fluids into his body nearby. One tube leaving his arm was full of blood and pooling pints of it into canisters lining the wall. He turned his head to look up at her horrified face and smiled, sweat dripping down his flushed, pallor skin.

“ _ What are they doing to you _ ?” she said, rushing to his side. She tried ripping off his restraints, but her hands passed through his as if she were an apparition. She looked at her fingers, her breathing speeding up, and they went out of focus, like her mind was catching up with a body that wasn’t there.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Try to breathe,” Cal advised, ever the teacher, and she nodded, trying to stay focused.

“So you went to Tython anyway. Good girl,” he smiled and Luna could feel tears start to sting her tired eyes, but were they even really there?

“Listen Luna,” he said, trying to suppress a cough. “Things are not as they seem. The Empire is capturing Jedi and taking their blood...I think for the midi-chlorians, but I don’t know what they’re doing with them. They keep calling us the ‘donors.’” He paused to catch his breath, then pushed on, his words becoming rushed. He looked close to passing out.

“The child I heard wasn’t on Tython, but another Jedi was. We were both captured and brought on this ship. I don’t know where we’re going or where we are, but I know if we don’t escape…” Cal trailed off and Luna let out a shaky breath.

“They’re going to bleed you dry,” she said. She ripped her gaze from Cal’s weakening face and started examining his room, the charts and medical terminology written on the walls, but nothing was standing out. She needed to get to the bridge and figure out where the ship was, where it was headed. Luna raced to the door, but then paused, looking back at her master who was withering away in an imperial medical office. 

“Luna…you must take back Tython. Make sure...no other Jedi are captured there. And...be careful with the seeing stone. Remember there are two sides to the force,” he mumbled, craning his neck to look at her. Luna was afraid, but even more so, she was angry. Amid so much uncertainty, she knew one thing for sure: She was going to make the imps pay dearly for what they were doing to the Jedi. To Luna Apalo’s master. She would make them know her name and  _ fear _ it. 

“I’m coming, Cal. Be ready when I arrive or I’ll leave you here,” she said and he let out a weak chuckle before nodding and then closing his eyes.

She pressed her hand against the door to leave, but then felt the force pulling her body to the left toward a wall, and decided to follow her instincts. She walked through the walls of two other empty medical rooms until she came to the fourth where a Togruta with orange skin, intricate white markings on her face, and two white lekku with blue stripes was strapped to a med scanner bed. She blinked up at Luna and they stared at each other for a moment before she finally realized: This was the other Jedi.

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice as weak as Cal’s. Luna went to touch her hand and comfort her, then remembered she couldn’t.

“I’m Luna Apalo; I’m a friend. Who are you? Were you on Tython with Cal?” Luna said.

“I’m Ahsoka Tano. I went to Tython because…” she trailed off and squinted her eyes at the fluorescent lights above her bed, losing focus for a moment.

“Are you with Grogu? Is he safe?” she asked, pulling on her restraints. Was this the Jedi that had been protecting Grogu? Luna stepped closer and saw the canisters of her blood stacked against the wall. Fewer than Cal, but enough for concern.

“Don’t panic, Ahsoka. I’ll get you out of here soon enough. Do you know where this ship is headed?” Luna pressed, but Ahsoka was fading, her head lolling back against the bed.

“Have to make sure...he’s okay. Is Grogu okay?” she mumbled, fading in and out of consciousness. 

“Ahsoka, is Grogu here on the ship? Ahsoka?” Luna said, but she kept muttering incoherently, unable to answer. It was no use trying to talk to Cal or Ahsoka--the blood loss was strangling their brains of any information she could use to find them or Grogu. She whispered an apology to Ahsoka and then blinked back into the hallway. But she could feel her vision becoming blurry again and things shifted out of focus. For a moment, she thought she could hear Mathis’ rifle recoiling in the distance. Her grip on the force was waning--she had to move fast. 

Luna sprinted down halls and through rooms filled with stormtroopers who paid her no mind, their focus on the force almost nonexistent, until she reached the bridge. She made her way to the front to stare at the star chart in their navigation console, but her vision was blurring around their exact coordinates. The only thing she could make out was the end goal: Yavin 4. How poetic it would’ve been had it said Yavin 9; Mathis would’ve gotten a kick out of that. Their names were mainly known in the New Republic army for their failed diplomatic mission on Yavin 9. But still—why take the Jedi to Yavin 4?

“What’s on Yavin 4?” she wondered aloud and the commanding officer next to her turned and looked around, startling her. She backed away from the woman slowly, wondering if she could see her, but the officer seemed to look right through her. A semi-force sensitive imperial officer—who would've guessed?

“Who hasn’t been reading our mission reports?” the woman muttered as she turned back to her control panel, clearly annoyed. “Moff Gideon wants that bloody child on Yavin 4. Obviously.”

“ _ Moff Gideon _ ?” Luna said in awe and the woman spun around again, looking for the owner with her eyes narrowed. She slapped a hand over her mouth and quickly backed away until she was in a nearby hallway. When she determined it was safe, she allowed herself to breathe again, her breaths shaky as she tried to process all the information. 

_ The _ Moff Gideon, infamous Imperial Commander and war criminal, was capturing Jedi for their blood and was now on his way to snatch another---most likely Din Djarin’s Jedi son. Luna only knew Gideon’s name in passing like this, like a myth—she’d even pretended she was getting a transmission from him on that cruiser when they were undercover—but knowing he was this close  _ and _ hunting her kind? It finally made him real in her mind, not just a fabled monster whispered about among New Republic cadets. She couldn’t imagine facing him down in person. But one thing at a time, right?

Luna had to get back to Tython and  _ fast _ . She needed to warn Din about Grogu, stop any more Jedi from going to the planet, and figure out a way to get off-planet to go after Cal. And not be killed by hundreds of stormtroopers in the process. If Cal didn’t make her a Jedi Knight after all this, then she simply didn’t want to be one.

She breathed deeply in through her nose and then out through her mouth, focusing on the force around and inside of her, inside the troopers and officers of the cruiser.  _ Bring me back to Tython _ , she thought. She felt the cruiser fade from beneath her feet, replaced with stars and distant spiraling galaxies.

The voices soon returned and echoed around her until one spoke out from the rest, but Luna knew it wasn’t trying to guide her back. It was no Jedi. Something else was taking over. 

* * *

The stars around her began to fade into blackness as the dark side of the force made its presence known, wrapping its claws around her mind. 

_ Come to me, Luna,  _ a woman’s voice whispered from behind her. She felt a chill dripping down her spine, vertebrae by vertebrae. Something was behind her, but she held firm, trying not to look. The voice was the woman from her vision on Tatooine, she was sure of it, coming again to break her focus. 

_ I don’t have time for tricks _ , Luna said and her voice echoed into the void.  _ Bring me to Tython, to Mathis Hao and Din Djarin _ . 

**_I said come_ ** , the woman hissed and a hand grabbed her shoulder roughly, long fingernails digging into her wound. Luna gasped and spun around, finding herself standing inside a ship, the void of space gone. It was some kind of small transporter--no,  _ the _ transporter from her vision. Why was the dark side connecting her to this moment? Was she meant to prevent it? 

Again, everything looked and felt so real--the floor beneath her feet, the sounds of high winds shaking the vessel outside, and the dark-haired woman and child, who looked no older than four. The woman was grabbing the little girl by her arm, pulling her to the door as she screamed for help and tried to drag her feet across the floor to slow her down.

“Hey, leave her alone!” Luna yelled, rushing at them, but she couldn’t get to the other side of the ship, some invisible wall barring her entry. She banged on the wall with clenched fists as the woman opened the door and tried to throw the child out into the air. But the little girl held onto her arm, her small fingers wrapped around the woman’s wrist.

“Let go! Let go!” the woman screamed, ripping her fingers off one by one, and the child cried harder as her grip began to fail. 

“Stop it! She’s just a child!” Luna begged. She felt along the invisible wall for some kind of weakness, but found none, so she ignited her saber and began slashing at the air, but it rebuffed every blow. The woman finally ripped her daughter’s small hand from her wrist and held her there in the air, her body dangling in the high winds. Slowly, she turned to look at Luna, her eyes red and filled with tears, and Luna’s body went stiff. Through the open doorway behind her, she could see the pillars of Cloud City shining in the clouds below.

Luna knew this ship, this moment. This woman.

She knew them like she knew Bespin, like Bogano and Chandrila, like the exact weight and feel of the saber in her hand when she ended a life. This moment was no vision of things to come. It was a memory of what had come to pass. 

“But wouldn’t you do it too? Wouldn’t you if you knew what she was?” the woman cried. The little girl’s screams were echoing around the hull of the ship. Luna gritted her teeth through her tears and raised her saber, pointing it at her mother.

“If you drop that child, I will kill you where you stand,” she said. Lara Apalo smiled knowingly, tears falling freely down her cheeks, and she closed her eyes. 

“I know you will, Luna,” she whispered, and Luna could feel her let go of the child’s hand,  _ her hand _ , and her body was suddenly outside the transporter, plummeting through Bespin’s clouds. 

“Tython, bring me to Tython!” she screamed as she fell.

_ To BD-1. To Mathis Hao.  _

_ To Din Djarin _ .

And the universe replied one last time.

* * *

Luna jolted awake on the ground where she’d fallen beside the seeing stone, gasping for air. She was grateful to feel Tython’s sun, smell the dirt and feel the solid ground beneath her again, and to see her Mandalorian. Din was right where she’d left him and he turned around quickly at the sound of her heavy breathing, blaster raised. He lowered it quickly and rushed to her side, kneeling down in the dirt.

“You came back,” he said, but sounded concerned. He reached out and ran his thumb across her cheek and his glove came away wet. She’d been crying inside the transporter memory--and still was. “Are you hurt?”

What could she say to him? The magical seeing stone had used the dark side of the force to unlock memories she’d forgotten existed, and she had traveled halfway across the galaxy in her mind to talk to Cal Kestis as an apparition. She was pretty sure Din would have a hard time handling all that when he was calling her lightsaber a “sword.” 

“The Empire is holding Cal and the other Jedi prisoner on a cruiser, but Grogu wasn’t with them,” she replied instead, figuring the information was of more importance than her mental wellbeing. “But Moff Gideon is looking for him, Din. And they have a heading: Yavin 4. Do you know if he’s there?” 

“ **_Dank farrik_ ** ,” Din cursed, his tone deadly. He stood and paced in a circle, clenching and unclenching his hands. Luna wiped the tears from her eyes and stood slowly, trying not to lean too close to the stone.

“I don’t know where the Jedi took him,” Din said. “Who was the other Jedi?”

“She said her name was Ahsoka Tano,” Luna said and Din released a new string of curses, holding his helmet in his hands in frustration. 

“Is she the Jedi who’s been protecting Grogu?”

“No, but she's a friend,” he replied. “This is my fault--I shouldn’t have taken him here. They’ve been captured because of me, because I wanted to find him a master.”

Before Luna could answer, a blast ricocheted off Din’s chest plate and they both turned to see troopers rushing the opposite side of the ridge--the side Mathis couldn't cover. Din advanced on them, shooting them down expertly one by one, and any troopers who managed to slip by him ran straight for Luna. Still exhausted from using the stone, she tried to keep them at a distance. She force pushed the first three in her path off the ridge and they screamed as they smashed against the jagged rocks below. 

“The cuffs, the cuffs!” one trooper was yelling and she spun around to see two more coming up behind her, holding electric handcuffs. She ignited her saber and impaled the first imp through the chest, then kicked him off into the arms of the other who fell to the ground, his dead friend’s body pinning him down. Luna bent over, trying to catch her breath, but with each trooper she killed, it was like two more took his place. 

Din was tossing troopers left and right, knocking out some out with his fists and grabbing others, shoving his blaster under their helmets, and firing until they went limp. But he was soon overwhelmed too, and the Mandalorian and Jedi backed into one another, pinned by a circle of more than twenty stormtroopers. Several of them were holding electric handcuffs, and two were holding an electrified metal net. Luna knew they were meant for her.

“Hand over the Jedi, Mandalorian,” a trooper officer with a red pauldron on her left shoulder said, stepping forward to address them. 

“And if I don’t?” he said. Luna smiled weakly, remembering their skirmish on Tatooine. Maybe he was going to start counting again.

But the ground beneath them began to shake and the troopers broke ranks, looking around for the threat. Din and Luna turned and watched as the ridge trail began to explode into fire and ash, the troopers being picked off in line before they could run for cover. Luna glanced down the cliffside and spotted Mathis and BD-1 on the ground below manning the E-Web gun the imps had abandoned, and he was shooting wildly, the powerful recoil of the gun jumping its aim with every shot. And they were about to be in the line of fire.

“Evasive maneuvers!” Mathis shouted. Din threw Luna’s arm over his shoulders and blasted them into the air, and only seconds later, Mathis mowed down the troopers still standing at the seeing stone. Those that were able to escape were quickly sprinting back down toward him and he stumbled away from the gun, preparing to run.

Din circled back and dipped down for a split second to grab Mathis’ arm--BD-1 clinging to his leg--and then flew the team into the upper atmosphere. He piloted for a few minutes across Tython’s rocky landscape until they couldn’t see the make-shift imperial base or the smoke from their crash site. When they landed, Mathis and Luna collapsed on the ground where Din dropped them, resting for the first time in days. 

“Did you talk to Cal?” Mathis asked as he tried to catch his breath.

“He’s not doing so well,” Luna said and closed her eyes.

* * *

After unloading all the information she’d gathered, the three and their droid settled in for the night in their make-shift camp, sitting on the ground around a low fire to avoid being spotted. Mathis started roasting something unrecognizable he’d brought back from the woods and Din leaned back against a boulder, arms crossed—helmet still on. Luna was leaning over the coals, trying to keep warm, and avoiding eye contact after explaining her newly crafted rescue plan. 

“Do you have a death wish?” Din said beside her, his helmet tilted to the side in wonder.

“I second that,” Mathis sighed. He took a large bite of the charred flesh on his sharpened stick. 

“Do either of you have a better idea?” Luna shot back. They needed to move quickly and be decisive, not dance around their options. And this was the best one they were going to get. 

“Yeah, it’s called wait five seconds for the New Republic Army. They said they’ll be here by dawn,” Mathis said through his full mouth.

“Cal and Ahsoka don’t have that long. Even if they arrive to save us on Tython, they can’t get me to that cruiser in time, I guarantee it,” she said and Mathis shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“It’s suicide,” Din said. “I won’t have you dying for my mistakes.” 

“This isn’t on you, Din. It’s on Moff Gideon and those imperial scum. I have to turn myself in; it’s the fastest way I can get to the Jedi being held captive.” 

“Why can’t we just send a ship straight to Yavin 4, cut them off?” Mathis offered, but Luna shook her head.

“We don’t even know how far off the cruiser is from Yavin 4. They don’t have long. Grogu may not have that long,” she stressed again. Din sat up and leaned forward—either he was becoming invested in her plan or was about to bind her hands behind her back to stop her from executing it.

“How do you know they’ll take the bait when you surrender? You can’t seem to tell a lie,” he said and Mathis coughed as he laughed and tried to swallow his food.

“I don’t need to,” Luna said, glaring at them both. “I can  _ make _ them believe me.” 

“Oh maker, here we go again with the Jedi mind tricks,” Mathis said and threw his hands up in defeat. Din looked at them both, his helmet turning slowly like,  _ Are they just messing with me now? _

“You can control minds?” he asked blankly.

“I can influence people using the force to make them do what I want,” Luna replied, but Mathis raised a hand and pointed at her accusingly.

“That would be the case, if you could actually do it.” 

“Mathis, I will do it. And when I do, I can make sure they take me directly to the cruiser that has Cal and Ahsoka,” she said, challenging him. They stared each other down as the tension between them rose. Din had nowhere to look but at BD-1 who beeped quietly, scanning the fire. 

“You’re not doing this. I won’t let you,” he said. 

“Since when do I need your permission to do anything, Captain Hao?” she said, feeling anger bubbling up in her chest. She’d expected some blowback on her plan, but not to this extent. Cal’s life was hanging in the balance. What would she be willing to do if Mathis tried to stop her? He reached out and grabbed her hand and she stared down at it. 

“We’re a team, Luna. You and me. We don’t do things alone, especially stupid things,” he said. He squeezed her hand,  _ Don’t do this _ . She pulled away.

“I know I can do this,” she said. Mathis took a deep breath, perhaps trying to calm himself. But Luna could see that look in his eye, the same look from the cantina on Nevarro.

“Say you can do it and you make it past the first few stormtroopers with your Jedi mind tricks. But then when you finally make it to Cal, you slip up.  _ Once _ . One trooper doesn’t listen to your commands and you get captured too. Now Moff Gideon has the midi-chlorians of  **three** different Jedi and is about to get a fourth. What then, Luna?”

Luna went to reply, but Mathis kept going, his voice rising, and her angry retort died in her throat.

“And I’m just sitting here with Din, Jon, and an entire fleet from the New Republic twiddling my kriffing thumbs while you die somewhere out there in space and the whole galaxy goes to shit!”

“Just because I could fail doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try,” she said. The captain let out a short, hollow laugh.

“It doesn’t mean you should willingly get yourself killed, either,” he snapped. “I’m going to contact Lieutenant Danner again.” 

He dropped his dinner beside him and stood, motioning for BD-1 to follow, and walked back to the woods with the droid. Luna hadn’t seen Mathis this angry with her in a long time--even Nevarro had been mild. She knew he was frustrated with her, but she  _ knew _ she was right. And he had to know it too, but he just couldn’t bring himself to admit it. After a beat of silence, Din spoke.

“He cares for you,” he said. Luna stoked the fire with a stick and watched the embers fight to stay alive against the cold night air.

“Danner will talk some sense into him,” she replied quietly. The Lieutenant had a way of getting through to the captain, in more ways than one. He was a smart man--and an even smarter strategist. He would convince Mathis they needed the army to stay on Tython to eliminate the imperial base and protect any other Jedi who came looking for Grogu. She was sure of it.

“Luna,” Din said again, and she turned to look at him, coming out of the fog of her thoughts. 

“What’d you say?”

“Take off your shirt,” he said. Luna glanced at him strangely, thinking she heard wrong. 

“That’s very forward of you,” she replied, but the Mandalorian nodded at her shoulder, still caked in blood. The ache had disappeared into numbness—she’d forgotten it was even there. She opened her mouth to dismiss the wound as she had been doing, but Din held up his hand.

“Don’t even try,” he said. Such excellent bedside manner. Luna sighed and shrugged off her cloak, then lifted up the right half of her shirt over her shoulder and the tight black cloth wrapped around her chest. The blaster wound was dripping with fresh blood and blackened around the edges, the veins leading into it a dark purple. She didn’t need Din to tell her it was infected. 

“Come here,” Din said, patting the ground next to him. Luna inched over until her thigh brushed against his. He ripped a strip of cloth from his cape and dipped it in their drinking water before starting to clean the wound. She instantly felt it burn and slammed a hand against his chest plate in agony. He looked down at her hand, then back up at her. 

“Sorry,” Luna mumbled and her hand fell weakly back to her lap. He touched her wound more gently, applying less pressure. They were quiet for a moment, only the sounds of the light breeze and the crackling fire filling in the places where words should’ve been. 

“I’m coming with you,” Din said suddenly. Luna shook her head. She already had Cal and Ahsoka to worry about—she couldn’t risk someone else. Like Mathis said, all it would take is one mistake--what if that mistake cost Grogu his father? 

“I can do it on my own.”

“You  _ need _ someone,” he said. Luna thought back to Din’s speech on Tatooine. _ But you do need someone, don’t you? You were going to execute them _ . 

“I know Moff Gideon and how he operates. I also know how the imps deal with bounty hunters. You’d use your mind control to get us through as a Mandalorian bounty hunter bringing in a Jedi for reward. If you mess up, I can take care of the rest,” he continued. Luna was pretty sure that was a euphemism for ‘he’d kill anyone who dared cross their path.’ Din didn’t wait for her reply.

“Could you show me how it works?” he asked. He finished wrapping her shoulder up and tied the make-shift bandage tight so the wound wouldn’t bleed any more. She ran her hand over his handiwork and smiled. Patched up again by the Mandalorian. 

“Do you want me to try?” Luna said. He nodded confidently.

“Go ahead.”

Luna closed her eyes for a moment to gather herself, feeling the force inside them both. When she opened her eyes, she slowly passed a hand in front of Din’s visor, choosing her words carefully.

“You  _ will _ let me go alone to save the Jedi,” she tried. Din was still for a moment, then shook his head.

“No,” he replied and Luna laughed, shoving him in his chest plate. His body language looked almost offended and he held his hands out, palms up in question. 

“Was that it? Did I do something wrong?” he asked, chuckling through his helmet. 

“No, I did something wrong. Don’t worry,” she reassured. She took another deep breath, trying to dig down deep and find patience, peace. Before thinking too much about it, Luna spoke a new command.

“You  _ will _ take off your helmet,” she said, but the second she did, she regretted it. It was part of his religion, how insensitive could she get? Why’d she even say that?

“Do you want me to?” Din asked, and his gloved hands moved to grab the rim, thumbs hooking underneath. Luna’s eyes widened--had it actually worked?

“No, I’m sorry I just—“ she began, but Din started to lift his helmet up. She grabbed the sides of it to push it back down, her hands overlapping with his. She couldn’t breach his trust like this--she wished she’d never tried to control him.

“I would  _ never _ make you do something against your will. I’m so sorry, I take it back. Don’t do it,” she said quickly. Din let go of his helmet and grabbed her wrists gently, putting them back down in her lap and she sighed in relief. But then--he reached up again. And just like that, he removed his helmet. Luna’s lips parted, but no words came--she was entranced, watching the flames of the fire reflect off his face, his skin, his eyes. 

Brown eyes. With dark messy brown hair, standing up in all different directions from his helmet. 

“Don’t worry, your mind control didn’t work. I just wanted to take it off,” he said, studying her face. His voice was raw, unmodulated, untouched. Luna could listen to it all day. They stared at each other for a moment, as if meeting again for the first time. 

"Your hair's messy," she said, unprompted. Din exhaled sharply through his nose, perhaps to avoid a laugh. What did that sound like, unmodulated?

"So is yours," he countered, looking down at her unruly long locks. Luna shook her head at him, still unsure if this was okay.

“Are you sure this is what you wanted?” she asked. 

“Yes, I'm sure,” he said. He reached up and ran his thumb--when had he taken off those ratty gloves?-- along her bottom lip. “Your lip is healing well.” 

Her face burned under his touch and she knew she couldn't keep blaming it on the heating in Slave I or the fever from her wound or the heat of the campfire beside them. But to feel this? When Cal was in danger? When the Empire was bleeding Jedi dry? She couldn't allow herself the pleasure. And that would be easy, if only he'd stop flirting. 

Luna leaned away from his touch and averted her eyes to look back at the fire, trying to calm her raging pulse--her body was pumping the same amount of adrenaline as if she were in hand-to-hand combat. And she could feel him still staring at her, perhaps memorizing her, with those brown eyes. This Mandalorian was going to be the death of her.

“If we’re going to leave without Mathis stopping us, we have to leave soon.”

* * *

After Mathis had returned and they’d all turned in for the night, Din and Luna allowed a few hours of sleep before sneaking away. They approached the imperial base first by air via Din’s jetpack, then when they were close enough, they walked side by side across Tython’s rocky terrain. Luna kept glancing back to where their fire had been miles back, picturing Mathis waking up to an empty campsite. If she didn’t die on this mission, he would probably kill her himself.

“He’ll be fine,” Din said. By now he’d shoved that helmet back on and Luna was almost grateful--like she could handle a distraction like that while on a life or death mission. 

“He better be,” she mumbled. A few paces from the base, Luna stepped in front of Din and the two paused in their stride. She slowly held out her saber.

“Will you keep this safe for me?” she said and he nodded, taking his blaster out of its holster and slipping the saber in its place so it’d be properly hidden. She turned back to the base, only semi-ready to do the unthinkable. Surrender to the enemy. Din joined her at her side and nodded to the patrol of imps who had already spotted them on the perimeter and were quickly approaching, blasters raised. 

It was time for her to start manipulating minds--there was no doubt these imps would recognize them from the attack earlier. She would have to make them forget, make them buy their cheaply made story, and get them on the first imperial transporter off Tython if they were going to save Cal, Ahsoka, and Grogu in time. Luna felt Din’s hand brush past hers as she tried to swallow her nerves and she looked up at him from underneath the hood of her cloak.

"I got your back," he said and she gave him a tight nod. 

“But remember this, Luna. If things go wrong...don’t go where I can’t follow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SandNinjaBunny: Such high praise!! Your comments made my day, dude. I’m glad you like the story and Luna. More action to come!
> 
> Lauren: Wait no longer!! I wrote this chapter so fast. Hope you enjoy it :)
> 
> Imabeautifulbutterfly: Thank you so much!! Hope you enjoy this new chapter :)


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